（First half)Berlin (CNN) -- Germany's President Christian Wulff announced his resignation Friday following a series of scandals that prompted calls for him to stand down.
The German presidency is a largely ceremonial office, but Wulff's resignation is seen as a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supported his candidacy as president.
However, it is unlikely to impact Germany's handling of the eurozone debt crisis, Carsten Brzeski, a senior economist at ING, told CNN.
The members of her governing coalition would now discuss who should stand for election in his place, she said, in consultation with other political parties.
Merkel had been due to meet Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Rome to discuss the eurozone crisis but canceled the trip amid the political storm over Wulff, who belongs to her party.
However, Brzeski said that Wulff's resignation should not have any direct impact on Germany's handling of the eurozone crisis in the short term, given his almost entirely ceremonial role.
"Even if it is the highest official office in Germany, he has no say at all in the government's policy toward the crisis," Brzeski said.
However, in the medium term the Wulff affair could weaken Merkel's position in domestic politics, he said, which could affect her ability to win parliamentary votes on the eurozone's bailout fund, the EFSF, and a second bailout package for Greece.
Merkel has not had involvement in any of the scandals. But Wulff's departure comes within two years of the resignation of his predecessor, Horst Koehler, who was also backed by Merkel -- raises a question mark over her judgment, Brzeski added.
Merkel's decision to liaise with the Social Democrats and the Greens on finding a replacement for Wulff is a break from her earlier stance in 2010, when she insisted on Wulff as successor to Koehler, who resigned following controversial comments in which he suggested military deployments were vital to Germany's economic success.
(Sencond half)The chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, said Wulff's decision had been long overdue.
"Germany needs a new beginning," he said. "I'm assuming that the leaders of the CDU and Federal Chancellor Merkel won't for the third time be selecting a new candidate with purely partisan motives. They have to include all political parties in their discussions to find a consensus candidate." The Greens' parliamentary leaders, Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin, said they were "relieved that Christian Wulff has finally unburdened the country from agonizing debate with his resignation." Wulff, who was the state premier of Lower Saxony for seven years, was one of Merkel's biggest rivals within the Christian Democrats before being elected to the presidency in 2010. It took three rounds of voting in the Reichstag, or German parliament, before he won enough backing from lawmakers to assume the role.
Wulff was born in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, in June 1959 and went on to become a lawyer, according to the official website of the presidency.
He first entered local politics as a member of the CDU party in 1986 and was elected to Lower Saxony's parliament in 1994. He was chosen as state premiere by lawmakers in his party following elections in 2003.
He was the 10th president to serve in the Federal Republic of Germany. He has been married twice and has two children of his own and a stepson.
The Worker's Party announced that they had expelled Yaw Shin Leong, MP for Hougang GRC, from the WP on account of his alleged extra-marital affairs with a fellow party member. According to them, he had not spoken to them about this affair despite them requesting multiple times that he do so. I feel that this is poor leadership on Mr Yaw's part as he is a government official, and he should conduct himself in a manner befitting that of a leader of the people.
SINGAPORE - Strapped for manpower, some companies here were hoping that the uncertain economy would provide some respite from government measures aimed at further reducing the Republic's dependence on imported labour.
But their hopes were dashed yesterday, as further reductions were announced in the Budget to the dependency ratio ceilings for hiring foreign manpower for the manufacturing and services sectors, along with a cut in the Man-Year Entitlement (MYE) quota for the construction sector.
The dependency ratio ceiling for the manufacturing sector will be lowered from 65 per cent to 60 per cent, and from 50 per cent to 45 per cent for the services sector. The MYE quota for the construction sector will be cut by 5 per cent.
And all sectors will be hit by the reduction in the S Pass Sub-dependency ratio ceiling from 25 per cent to 20 per cent.
In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted that the economic downturn provided an opportunity to lower the dependency ratio ceilings across the board. "All firms can then take this into account in their future hiring decisions. This will help to contain our dependence on foreign workers in the long term," he said.
The new dependency ratio ceilings and MYE quota for new foreign workers take effect from July. For existing workers, companies have until June 2014 to comply.
Still, the July deadline is "too abrupt" for businesses to adjust to, said Mr Lawrence Leow, chairman of the Singapore Business Federation's Small and Medium Enterprises Committee. "It would have been more fair to maintain the status quo, given the uncertainty businesses, especially small businesses, will face this year," he said.
The announcements were greeted with consternation by businesses - in particular the construction industry - which have seen rising foreign worker levies and cuts in quotas over the past few years.
Singapore will need another 30,000 construction workers for public housing alone, with some 25,000 Build-To-Order housing units to be added this year, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan had said on his blog last month.
Singapore Contractors Association president Ho Nyok Yong noted that the dependency ratio ceiling reduction for S Pass holders deals the industry a double blow, as the construction sector is in need of middle-management staff, such as foremen and supervisors. "We want to hire Singaporeans, but the fact is that many are not willing to do it," he said.
Using prefabricated units - a practice the Government has been encouraging - can help to speed up construction and ease the need for manpower. "Prefab is the way to go, if contractors want to manage costs better," said Mr Ong Chong Hua, executive director of Ho Bee Group. "I see a lot of contractors adopting the methods, so I believe over time we can be less dependent on foreign manpower.
But Straits Construction director Kenneth Loo felt this would not mitigate the short-term manpower crunch: "Construction is labour-intensive ... whatever (productivity) improvements we make can't make up for the shortfall in supply at such a short notice."
Businesses in the services sector also decried the measures, noting the uncertain economic outlook. "This adds to our cost pressures at a very tough time," said Ms Christine Chan, head of human resources at Riverview Hotel. "Of course we support raising productivity, but there is a limit - it still takes a person to serve tea and coffee."
Mr Howard Lo, owner of Standing Sushi Bar, added: "I (have) been fielding requests to franchise overseas but, since I would need to send some of my staff overseas to train up the folk there, it would be hard for me to find people to fill in here in Singapore."
Aung San Suu Kyi wins right to run in Burma elections: Burma's election commission has given the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi the green light to run for parliamentary byelections, another step toward political openness in a country emerging from nearly half a century of military rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi announced her intention last month to stand in elections in April but was waiting for official approval from the commission, which said it had to scrutinise her eligibility.
A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's party said the commission approved her candidacy and would make a formal announcement on Monday. "There is no objection to her nomination and we can say that her candidacy is officially accepted," Nyan Win said.
The new, nominally civilian government, which took office last March, has surprised even some of the country's toughest critics by releasing hundreds of political prisoners, signing ceasefire deals with ethnic rebels, increasing media freedoms and easing censorship laws.
Burma's government hopes the rapid changes will prompt the west to lift economic sanctions that were imposed on the country during the military junta's rule. Western governments and the United Nations have said they will review sanctions only after gauging whether the April polls are carried out freely and fairly.
The election is being held to fill 48 parliamentary seats vacated by lawmakers who were appointed to the cabinet and other posts.
Even if Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party wins all 48 seats, it will have minimal power. The 440-seat lower house of parliament is heavily weighted with military appointees and allies of the former junta.
But a victory would be historic for Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. She would have a voice in parliament for the first time after decades as the country's opposition leader. Her party won a sweeping victory in the 1990 general election but the junta refused to honour the results.
Aung San Suu Kyi will run for a seat representing Kawhmu, a poor district south of Yangon where villagers' livelihoods were devastated by cyclone Nargis in 2008.
There are many different types of leaders and leadership styles. Sometimes, a leadership of a country might not be in the hands of one person, but of a group who tries to retain power over an 'inferior' populace. Leaders, or the leader class of a society, might try to retain power by use of fear and cult of personality, similar to how Jack uses fear of the Beast and his own strength to retain power of his tribe in LoTF.
One real life example of such a style of leadership could be that of North Korea. North Korea's leadership is creating a cult of personality for Kim Jong Un, as a "Great Successor", ready to lead his country against the "imperialists". Even former leaders, such as Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, are still revered by the populace, and still formally have positions of power in the country. This is a deliberate attempt by North Korea's leadership to retain power for themselves, as despite the poverty and hardships many North Koreans face, the leadership still retains power through the cult of personality, and the lack of knowledge about the real world. Their desire for leadership is not for the betterment of their people, but for the sake of fulfilling their own desire for power.
(first part) SEOUL, South Korea — When tens of thousands of South Koreans spilled into central Seoul on Tuesday in the country’s largest antigovernment protest in 20 years, the police built a barricade with shipping containers. They coated them with oil and filled them with sandbags so protesters could not climb or topple them to march on President Lee Myung-bak’s office a couple of blocks away. Faced with the wall, people pasted identical leaflets on it, their message dramatically summarizing Mr. Lee’s image and alienation from many of his people: “This is a new border for our country. From here starts the U.S. state of South Korea.” The protests illuminate the shift in President Lee’s political fortunes. When he was elected last December, South Koreans hailed him as a long-awaited leader who could salvage their country’s alliance with the United States, which was strained under Mr. Lee’s left-leaning predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun. Only six months later, Mr. Lee finds Koreans vilifying him as something Mr. Roh famously said he would never become: “a Korean leader kowtowing to the Americans.” “While championing a pragmatic leadership, Mr. Lee overlooked Koreans’ nationalistic pride,” said Choi Jin, director of the Institute of Presidential Leadership in Seoul. “If what troubled Roh’s presidency was too much nationalism, Lee’s problem is a lack of it.” The chants showed that the demonstration was not merely about the president’s unpopular decision to lift an import ban on American beef. It also tapped into Korean pride.
This is a small country in a strategic location with a deep sense of grievance about being manipulated by the great powers around it. Chinese emperors demanded tribute from Korea; Japanese occupiers forbade Koreans to speak their own language; American, Chinese and Russian cold war rivalries divided Korea in two. While mostly approving of their alliance with the United States, South Koreans remain acutely sensitive to any suggestion that they must do America’s bidding. Mr. Lee’s slumping popularity was sown in his first glorious moment as president. On April 19, he became the first South Korean leader to be invited to the United States presidential retreat of Camp David, Md. Days before the visit, his aides billed the meeting with President Bush as a momentous event — one that never would have been granted to leaders like Mr. Roh, who was often accused of being too nationalistic and anti-American. South Koreans who had fought alongside the Americans during the Korean War in the early 1950s took to the streets in joy. They trusted Mr. Lee to save the country from what they called “leftist, anti-U.S. and pro-North Korean elements,” like Mr. Roh.
On the eve of the summit meeting, Seoul agreed to lift a five-year-old ban on American beef imports, imposed after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the United States. By traveling with a political gift for Mr. Bush, Mr. Lee demonstrated how eager he was to rebuild ties with Washington.
Little did he apparently imagine the reaction at home, among young South Koreans who had been watching with a cold eye.
“What he did was little different from an old Korean king offering tribute to a Chinese emperor,” said Kim Sook-yi, a 35-year-old homemaker who joined the protest on Tuesday with her two children. “This time, we give a tribute to Washington? It’s humiliating, bad for education for Korean children.”
Different kinds of leaderships can be seen in different parts of the world and even in our history. There have been democracy, communism and ruling by tyranny. Democracy is that of Singapore and most of the way developed countries govern their lands. Communism was popular in China where everyone is equal. Some leaders were also tyrants where their countries are filled with corruption but they sit back and do nothing so long as they benefit, Different kinds of leaderships will show different kinds of reactions from the citizens of the country. This will then lead to different consequences.
(part two) The demonstrations began on May 2, when hundreds of teenagers held a candlelight vigil in Seoul, and quickly snowballed. By this week they had become so overpowering that the entire cabinet offered to resign. Foreign bloggers watching the brouhaha ask: Why would thousands of South Koreans join protests about mad cow disease but not ask why Americans are not protesting American beef? Would South Koreans demonstrate with the same intensity if the beef came from Australia or New Zealand? What about Korean-Americans who eat American beef? To many South Koreans, however, the beef dispute is not entirely about health concerns or science. It is not entirely about the economy, either — beef from the United States is half the price of homegrown meat. To them, it is also the latest test of whether their leader can resist pressure from superpowers, even if there is good reason for the pressure, as is the case in the beef dispute. South Korea had promised to lift the ban once the World Organization for Animal Health ruled American beef fit for consumption, as it did in May last year. South Korea has built the world’s 13th largest economy largely through exports. Nonetheless, historical resentments linger. South Koreans in their 40s remember words from a popular childhood song handed down from their fathers and grandfathers: “Don’t be cheated by the Soviets. Don’t trust the Americans. Or the Japanese will rise again.” Koreans still chafe at the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea after liberating it from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II. Whether a South Korean leader can navigate this current of nationalistic sentiment can make or break his career. When two South Korean teenage girls were killed by an American military armored vehicle six years ago, it first appeared to be nothing more than a tragic traffic accident. But many young Koreans who had grown to regard the American military presence with humiliation rallied in protest. Mr. Roh, a relative political neophyte, quickly rode the wave into election victory. But South Koreans soon grew tired of Mr. Roh’s ideological pronouncements, which often strained the alliance with the United States. They gave a landslide victory to Mr. Lee, who promised to bring pragmatism into the presidency. “Lee was overconfident,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Soongsil University. “He thought since people rejected Roh, he could go just the opposite.” Many experts in Seoul draw a careful line between nationalism and anti-Americanism among Koreans. They say the recent series of demonstrations were more an expression of the former than the latter. But the divide gets thin sometimes. Alexander Vershbow, the United States ambassador in South Korea, got a taste of the simmering anti-American sentiment when he emphasized the safety of American beef last week. “We hope that Koreans will begin to understand more about the science and about the facts of American beef,” he said. The next day, politicians and protesters called the comment an “insult to all Korean citizens.” Jeon Sang-il, a sociologist at Sogang University, said the men seemed to have shot themselves in the foot. “These days, Koreans say there are only two anti-Americans in South Korea,” Mr. Jeon said. “One is Lee Myung-bak and the other Vershbow. They stoked anti-American sentiments with what they did and what they said.” Mr. Vershbow expressed regret that he was misunderstood.
Powerful groups such as the Misrata militia brigades have taken revenge on their enemies, in their case the Tawergha tribe, which they accuse of perpetrating war crimes in their city on behalf of Gaddafi.
Some 30,000 Tawergha have fled from their home town near Misrata. On 6 February, some of these refugees were attacked at a refugee centre near Tripoli, and eight killed by men who the Tawerghans say were from the same armed groups.
There is little evidence of any government attempt to protect the refugees or punish those responsible.
This type of incident brings us to the concerns of foreign governments. Some diplomats here are beginning to wonder aloud whether the revolution's conduct towards its former opponents might sow the seeds of a new insurgency.
They speak about former regime supporters as "the 20%". One comments: "What we cannot afford is for it to become 70/30 or even 60/40."
In their meetings with Libyan government officials, French, British, or Italian officials urge them to speed up the processing of detainees, which by some estimates number more than 8,000.
Many of these people have been refused contacts with lawyers and given no idea when they might be tried, say human rights workers.
Former Gaddafi strongholds like Sirte, Bani Walid, and Tajoura contain many embittered people who can expect little assistance from their new masters.
With its great national wealth, small population, absence of sectarian tensions, and the absence of a large occupying army (as in Iraq), the odds ought to be weighted in favour of Libya's new rulers.
Many people are waiting for June's elections for them to raise their game and demonstrate effective control of the country.
In that sense, the message that "tomorrow will be better" seems as much of a plea or a pledge of faith than any sort of statement of certainty.
EVERETT, Washington: President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to boost US exports to expand job creation on a visit to a facility of aviation giant Boeing, which he hailed as an example of revitalised industry.
At the end of a three-day tour focused on US industry and to raise funds for his November re-election bid, Obama promised not to "stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules," and benefit from what he called "unfair" trade practices.
"I will go anywhere in the world to open up new markets for American products," the US leader vowed.
In a cavernous Boeing hanger, Obama praised the company's new Dreamliner aircraft, which made its first commercial flight in October and is now getting a string of orders from around the world after years of delays that cost the firm billions of dollars in lost or canceled orders.
Obama, criticised this week by Republican president candidates Mitt Romney for supposed weakness dealing with Beijing, meanwhile insisted his administration was committed to "investigating unfair trade practices" in rival manufacturing bases in China, and in Europe, to ensure a better environment for US industry.
He also called on Congress to reauthorise the Export-Import Bank, announcing the bank would be launching a new programme to aid smaller businesses with exports.
The effort, he said, would "give American companies a fair shot by matching the unfair export financing that their competitors receive from other countries."
After the economy's upswing in January thanks to a surge in job creation, with the unemployment rate falling for the fifth straight month to 8.3 percent, Obama said companies like Boeing was an example for a strengthening environment for manufacturers.
"Last year orders of commercial aircraft rose by more than 50 percent. And to meet that demand, Boeing hired 13,000 workers all across America," the US leader said, saying it was "a great example of what American manufacturing can do."
Obama was to return to the US capital later Friday night after the three-day tour that took him to a factory in Wisconsin, and fund-raisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco to build his campaign war chest.
(1/2)BBC news:Akhilesh Yadav emerges as challenger in Uttar Pradesh
With the regional Samajwadi Party emerging as the main challenger to the government of Dalit icon Mayawati in the ongoing assembly elections in India's Uttar Pradesh state, the spotlight is on Akhilesh Yadav, the party's young president who is being credited with its turnaround. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Lucknow profiles the new star on the politically crucial state's horizon.
A few hundred people have gathered on a winter evening by the roadside in a crowded commercial area in Lucknow.
Overhead hangs red bunting with the smiling faces of party leaders and pictures of a bicycle - their election symbol.
Almost all the men in the crowd sport cloth caps in red - the party colour.
Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote We received a lot of benefits when his father was chief minister” End Quote Isa Kalim
Weaver
Soon, a bright red bus, escorted by a couple of dozen young men on bikes, comes into view and the crowd gets into a frenzy.
"Long live Akhilesh bhaiyya [brother]," they chant.
The bus comes to a halt in the middle of the road and Mr Yadav is hoisted onto the roof on a mechanical lift.
The member of parliament is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav - a former wrestler who served three times as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
He is the star campaigner for the Samajwadi Party and the reception he gets here befits a rockstar.
His flag-waving supporters surround the bus and throw rose petals at him. They call out his name and raise their hands to touch him.
Many in the crowd take his photo on their mobile phone cameras.
Mr Yadav appears at ease with the adulation, bending forward to catch the marigold garlands flung at him from below. He knows nearly all the party workers by name and invites a few of them to stand on the bus with him.
His speech is short and lively. He uses humour while listing the failures of the Mayawati government. He pokes fun at her for spending billions of rupees on building parks to Dalit icons and erecting their statues.
"Some people love stone statues, but we love people," he says to loud claps and cheers.
More than 40 million voters in Uttar Pradesh are below the age of 30 He talks about what his party will do if elected: "We will give laptops to students who finish class 12 and tablets to those who complete class 10." His young supporters cheer wildly.
In a country where age is regarded as a sign of wisdom and where most politicians are in their 70s and 80s, Mr Yadav at 38 is rather young.
But he is not new to politics. First elected to parliament in 2000, he is serving his third term as MP.
"Two years ago, he took over as the party president and has been leading the effort to win back power in the state," says Lucknow-based journalist Sanjay Bhatnagar.
"He is spontaneous, he has a presence, he has his own ideas. His father opposed English for being a language of the elite and computers for taking away jobs of poor people.
"But he's a contemporary and educated person. He has contributed a youth flavour to the party manifesto by talking about English and laptops for students."
It's a clever strategy in a state where 40 million voters are below the age of 30.
Mr Bhatnagar says Mr Yadav is being projected as the next leader by the party: "Yadav senior is getting on in years and his health problems are well-known. If the party wins, Akhilesh will be the obvious choice as chief minister."
Litmus test
Comparisons are also being made with Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty who is leading India's ruling Congress party's revival bid in the crucial state elections.
These elections are being seen as a litmus test of their leadership.
Mr Bhatnagar says: "Comparisons with Rahul Gandhi are natural. But Rahul is a national figure, whereas Akhilesh is purely a state leader.
"Rahul is a crowd puller but he is an outsider here. He has an urban image whereas Akhilesh has a more rural image which in Uttar Pradesh is an advantage."
For Mr Yadav though, his main adversary is Ms Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Since September, when the election campaign went into top gear, he has covered a lot of miles.
"I have travelled 8,000km (4,970 miles) by road and visited more than 250 of the 403 constituencies," he tells the BBC.
Now in the thick of the campaign, he is always on the move. He covers four to five constituencies a day, hopping from one meeting to another in a helicopter.
He offers me a seat in his helicopter during his tour of Ambedkar Nagar - a stronghold of the BSP which won all five seats in the district in the 2007 assembly elections.
We visit four constituencies and at each one he is welcomed by thousands of flag-waving, slogan-shouting supporters.
And his speeches are tailored to address local issues.
Two different leaderships in Libya part 1 (the former part is part 2)
TRIPOLI: On the outskirts of Misrata, there is a poster by the roadside. It is a slickly produced ad, funded by local businesses, carrying the slogan "Tomorrow Will Be Better."
Does it represent the kind of inherent optimism you find in many Islamic countries? Or is it an admission that, one year after the revolution to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi began, there are many respects in which there is disappointment and apprehension?
There is, without doubt, enormous pride at having toppled the old order. Point a camera at people on the streets celebrating and they will tell you how happy they are, and exult that "Libya is Free!"
Gada Mahfud, a writer in The Tripoli Post, referred this week, however, to "clouds of pessimism in the hearts and minds of Libyans", and this fits with the mood of a good number of people I have spoken to.
Many insist that they cannot say these things publicly, which itself prompts questions about freedom of speech. One of them, commenting on recent power cuts, told me: "This did not happen before the revolution, believe me. Everything in Libya was fine except for Gaddafi and his chums".
International disquiet
If there is a hope that "tomorrow will be better" on the part of many Libyans, there is also a disquiet on the part of some of the revolution's foreign backers.
“ Start Quote The country has lurched from a dictatorship, complete with a cult of the personality, to a collective leadership with a cult of obscurity” End Quote The Europeans are increasingly uncomfortable with reports emanating from Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontiers, and Human Rights Watch, detailing widespread arbitrary detention and torture. Frankly, these issues do not top the concerns of the average Libyan, so let's return to them later.
The type of problems they care most about are those of economic stagnation; an apparent paralysis on the part of central government; and the fact that "law and order" remain largely in the hands of militia groups from the revolutionary strongholds.
Foreign governments have recently unfrozen more than $60bn (£38bn) in Libyan government cash, and as oil production climbs back towards 2m barrels a day, revenues are pouring in.
Inevitably, people are asking why unemployment (estimated variously at 10-20%) is, if anything, increasing and hundreds of government construction contracts remain suspended when the country has so much money.
Flying here from Istanbul, I chatted on the plane to a Turkish businessman on his eighth visit since the revolution, trying once again to get a building project re-started.
Lack of public debate
People who want answers to these questions find it very hard to get them. The country is ruled by an interim government, responsible to the National Transitional Council (NTC), the self-appointed body that co-ordinated the revolution.
Both are meant to step aside after elections in June, and there is a feeling that nobody wants to take big decisions before then, for example to start building highways or other major infrastructure projects.
The new ministers and NTC are remote figures who most Libyans cannot name, some of whom were not publicly identified for months.
Dominic Asquith, the British ambassador here, told us: "The whole process of communication between government and people is still a work in progress."
The country has lurched from a dictatorship, complete with a cult of the personality, to a collective leadership with a cult of obscurity.
As for public debate or opposition, it has been limited by the murder of some prominent figures and the apparent impunity of the militia bands.
Those who have died range from Abdel Fattah Younes, who defected from the Gaddafi regime at the start of the revolution and commanded the rebel forces for a couple of months, to a former regime diplomat found dead a couple of weeks ago with signs of torture.
Panama's village leader Silvia Carrera defies a president (Part 1)
As she stands among villagers in the highlands of western Panama, their chosen leader, Silvia Carrera, is an image of bucolic harmony. Then Carrera, elected chief or general cacique of the Ngäbe-Buglé community, gestures to a woman who hands her a bag of spent US riot-control equipment – rubber bullet casings, shotgun shells, sting-ball grenades, teargas canisters.
Panama national police, she explains, used these against her people only days earlier to break up a protest against government plans for a vast copper mine and hydroelectric schemes on their territory. Three young Ngäbe-Buglé men were killed, dozens were wounded and more than 100 detained.
What began with villagers at Ojo de Agua in Chiriquí province using trees and rocks to block the Pan-American highway earlier this month – trapping hundreds of lorries and busloads of tourists coming over the border from Costa Rica for six days – has now placed Panama at the forefront of the enduring and often violent clash between indigenous peoples and global demand for land, minerals and energy. Carrera is emerging as a pivotal figure in the conflict.
"Look how they treat us. What do we have to defend ourselves? We don't have anything; we have only words," Carrera protests. "We are defenceless. We don't have weapons. We were attacked and it wasn't just by land but by air too. Everything they do to us, to our land, to our companions who will not come back to life, hurts us."
At the height of the protests, thousands of Ngäbe-Buglé came down from the hills to block the highway; in El Volcán and San Félix they briefly routed police and set fire to a police station. In Panama City, students and unions joined with indigenous protesters marching almost daily on the residence of President Ricardo Martinelli. Some daubed walls near the presidential palace with the words "Martinelli assassin".
Carrera pulls from her satchel a hastily drawn-up agreement brokered by the Catholic church that obliges the Panamanian national assembly to discuss the issue. It did not guarantee that the projects would be halted. Neither she nor the Ngäbe-Buglé people expressed optimism that the government would keep its word on the mining issue.
"The village doesn't believe it," she says, "and it wouldn't be the first time that the government threw around lies. They do not listen to the village. There was a similar massacre in 2010 and 2011, when there were deaths and injuries. Some were blinded, some of our companions lost limbs." A cry goes up: "No to the miners! No to the hydroelectric!"
The Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, or territory, sits atop the huge Cerro Colorado copper deposit, the richest mineral deposit in Panama, possibly in all of central America. Pro-business Martinelli, a self-made supermarket tycoon, signed a deal with Canada's Inmet Mining with a 20% Korean investment to extract as much as 270,000 tons of copper a year, along with gold and silver, over the 30-year lifespan of the proposed mine. Panama's tribes form 10% of the population but, through a system of autonomous comarcas, they control 30% of the land, giving them greater leverage.
Martinelli could hardly have found a prouder adversary than Carrera who, at 42 and elected only in September, is the first woman to lead Panama's largest indigenous tribe. "The land is our mother. It is because of her that we live," she says simply. "The people will defend our mother." Carrera holds Martinelli in scant regard. She accuses him of "mocking" indigenous people and considers his administration a government of businessmen who "use us to entertain themselves, saying one thing today and another tomorrow".
Two days before the police cleared the roadblocks, the president invited her to the Palacio de las Garzas in Panamá City for a "good meal and a drink". The Ngäbe-Buglé chief, who received education to secondary level, was unimpressed. The offer, she said, revealed "a lack of respect".
In past mining disputes, the government blamed "foreign actors" and journalists for stirring up trouble. Last week it accused the Ngäbe-Buglé of "kidnapping" and "hostage-taking" when referring to the travellers delayed on the highway. By the time the smoke cleared, Panama's foreign minister, Roberto Henríquez, conceded that his government was "only producing deeper wounds".
Fearful of the environmental and political fallout, governments throughout central America are tightening mining controls. But Martinelli, who came to power with the campaign slogan "walking in the shoes of the people", seems determined to find a way around legislation that protects indigenous mineral, water and environmental resources from exploitation.
Despite the region's history of conflict and shady banking practices, Panama is aggressively positioning itself both as an economic haven (GDP growth is running at close to 7.5%) and a tourist and eco-tourist destination. New skyscrapers thrust up into the humidity like a mini-Dubai; chic restaurants and hotels are opening up.
Officials express concern that the Ngäbe-Buglé and other indigenous disputes may undo Panama's carefully orchestrated PR push, spotlighting the disparity of wealth in a country where 40% of the population live in poverty. "The government says Good, Panama is growing its economy. Yet the economy is for a few bellaco [macho men]," Carrera says. "But progress should be for the majority and for this we will go into the street, and from frontier to frontier, to protest."
At the bottom of the hill the general cacique waits for a bus to take her and several dozen women to Panama City, 200km to the west, for another anti-government rally, where they will be joined by the Kuna and representatives of the Emberá and Wounaan peoples, who are opposing encroachment of farmers on their land in the eastern provinces. Carrera vows that the Ngäbe-Buglé campaign will continue. "We are not violent. We just want to reclaim our rights and justice. Above all, we want to live in peace and tranquility."
There are many different leadership styles in the world. some dictate while others respect the voices of their people. Here is an example of a dictator, who rule by fear and violence like Jack Merridew in LOTF.
Isaias Afewerki, Eritrea Years in power: 20 Afewerki, 65, once led Eritrea to independence, but today he deprives his citizens of all freedoms. There is no formal constitution, and every male starting at age 18 must enter “national service,” which is forced labor of indefinite length (evaders are jailed or killed). People with unsanctioned religious beliefs are imprisoned and tortured, as are journalists and activists. More than 50,000 Eritreans have escaped to refugee camps in Ethiopia. Western officials allege that Afewerki is aiding Al Qaeda–linked militants in Somalia.
Potential promising leaders can also let us down by pretending to be ignorant about the law which is the cornerstone of civilisation. This unscrupulous bahviour can be seen from this example of Hong Kong's candidate for its leader Henry Tang.
HONG KONG (AFP) - The fraying election hopes of China's reported favourite to become the next leader of Hong Kong were dealt another blow on Sunday with a poll showing most citizens think he should quit the race.
The University of Hong Kong survey heaped more pressure on Mr Henry Tang, whose campaign was thrown into disarray last week by the discovery of an illegal underground leisure space in a house belonging to his wife.
The wealthy Mr Tang, who many believe is Beijing's preferred candidate to become Hong Kong's next chief executive, admitted that he knew about the unauthorised structure, but blamed his wife for coming up with the idea.
The poll carried out Thursday and Friday at the height of the scandal found 51.3 per cent of the 516 people surveyed thought Mr Tang should abandon his campaign.
The alleged involvement of a school principal as a client of an online prostitution ring now under probe by the police seems to have raised more concern among Singaporeans than the reports that several top civil servants were also customers.
People rounded up for investigations now also include several other public servants such as a police officer and professionals like lawyers and bank officers, according to the latest update by The Straits Times.
According to responses gathered by Yahoo! Singapore in the wake of the police investigation, many Singaporeans understand the temptation of lust and are willing to overlook the ethics allegedly breached by the civil servants involved.
But they are not as understanding in the case of the principal, who reportedly resigned from his post at a top school after police conducted an island-wide operation to bust an online vice syndicate in December last year.
Said Angeline Ang, a parent of two teenage sons, “It was very alarming as I didn’t expect a principal to be involved in such a case… principals and teachers are meant to be looked upon as someone to be respected, with a reserved personality. What’s more, given that it’s a prostitution vice, I think it’s even more shocking and surprising to a lot of parents.” Higher salary may attract higher quality, but how can one ensure that higher quality is doing their job? Is there any system in place to appraise them on their performance?
Britain managed to endure the horrors of Hitler and the World War 2 was because of the brilliant leadership of then PM of UK, Winston Churchill. He managed to rally his country in difficult times, during hardships, in midst of adversities and a huge world conflict. He gave rousing speeches, his firm and confident character, motivated the people of England to stand and fight the war till the end. He vowed that they "shall never surrender".
His display of firm and good leadership was especially clear when the Blitz occurred. Many cities were bombed, thousands died and infrastructure vanished. But he was confident and had faith in his people and rallied them against the brutality of Hitler's war machine.
His ability to inspire as a leader, helped Britain to pull off one of her greatest battles in history.
（First half)Berlin (CNN) -- Germany's President Christian Wulff announced his resignation Friday following a series of scandals that prompted calls for him to stand down.
ReplyDeleteThe German presidency is a largely ceremonial office, but Wulff's resignation is seen as a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supported his candidacy as president.
However, it is unlikely to impact Germany's handling of the eurozone debt crisis, Carsten Brzeski, a senior economist at ING, told CNN.
The members of her governing coalition would now discuss who should stand for election in his place, she said, in consultation with other political parties.
Merkel had been due to meet Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Rome to discuss the eurozone crisis but canceled the trip amid the political storm over Wulff, who belongs to her party.
However, Brzeski said that Wulff's resignation should not have any direct impact on Germany's handling of the eurozone crisis in the short term, given his almost entirely ceremonial role.
"Even if it is the highest official office in Germany, he has no say at all in the government's policy toward the crisis," Brzeski said.
However, in the medium term the Wulff affair could weaken Merkel's position in domestic politics, he said, which could affect her ability to win parliamentary votes on the eurozone's bailout fund, the EFSF, and a second bailout package for Greece.
Merkel has not had involvement in any of the scandals. But Wulff's departure comes within two years of the resignation of his predecessor, Horst Koehler, who was also backed by Merkel -- raises a question mark over her judgment, Brzeski added.
Merkel's decision to liaise with the Social Democrats and the Greens on finding a replacement for Wulff is a break from her earlier stance in 2010, when she insisted on Wulff as successor to Koehler, who resigned following controversial comments in which he suggested military deployments were vital to Germany's economic success.
(Sencond half)The chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, said Wulff's decision had been long overdue.
ReplyDelete"Germany needs a new beginning," he said. "I'm assuming that the leaders of the CDU and Federal Chancellor Merkel won't for the third time be selecting a new candidate with purely partisan motives. They have to include all political parties in their discussions to find a consensus candidate."
The Greens' parliamentary leaders, Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin, said they were "relieved that Christian Wulff has finally unburdened the country from agonizing debate with his resignation."
Wulff, who was the state premier of Lower Saxony for seven years, was one of Merkel's biggest rivals within the Christian Democrats before being elected to the presidency in 2010.
It took three rounds of voting in the Reichstag, or German parliament, before he won enough backing from lawmakers to assume the role.
Wulff was born in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, in June 1959 and went on to become a lawyer, according to the official website of the presidency.
He first entered local politics as a member of the CDU party in 1986 and was elected to Lower Saxony's parliament in 1994. He was chosen as state premiere by lawmakers in his party following elections in 2003.
He was the 10th president to serve in the Federal Republic of Germany. He has been married twice and has two children of his own and a stepson.
The Worker's Party announced that they had expelled Yaw Shin Leong, MP for Hougang GRC, from the WP on account of his alleged extra-marital affairs with a fellow party member. According to them, he had not spoken to them about this affair despite them requesting multiple times that he do so. I feel that this is poor leadership on Mr Yaw's part as he is a government official, and he should conduct himself in a manner befitting that of a leader of the people.
ReplyDeleteFrom iTODAY:More curbs on foreign labour
ReplyDeleteSINGAPORE - Strapped for manpower, some companies here were hoping that the uncertain economy would provide some respite from government measures aimed at further reducing the Republic's dependence on imported labour.
But their hopes were dashed yesterday, as further reductions were announced in the Budget to the dependency ratio ceilings for hiring foreign manpower for the manufacturing and services sectors, along with a cut in the Man-Year Entitlement (MYE) quota for the construction sector.
The dependency ratio ceiling for the manufacturing sector will be lowered from 65 per cent to 60 per cent, and from 50 per cent to 45 per cent for the services sector. The MYE quota for the construction sector will be cut by 5 per cent.
And all sectors will be hit by the reduction in the S Pass Sub-dependency ratio ceiling from 25 per cent to 20 per cent.
In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted that the economic downturn provided an opportunity to lower the dependency ratio ceilings across the board. "All firms can then take this into account in their future hiring decisions. This will help to contain our dependence on foreign workers in the long term," he said.
The new dependency ratio ceilings and MYE quota for new foreign workers take effect from July. For existing workers, companies have until June 2014 to comply.
Still, the July deadline is "too abrupt" for businesses to adjust to, said Mr Lawrence Leow, chairman of the Singapore Business Federation's Small and Medium Enterprises Committee. "It would have been more fair to maintain the status quo, given the uncertainty businesses, especially small businesses, will face this year," he said.
The announcements were greeted with consternation by businesses - in particular the construction industry - which have seen rising foreign worker levies and cuts in quotas over the past few years.
Singapore will need another 30,000 construction workers for public housing alone, with some 25,000 Build-To-Order housing units to be added this year, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan had said on his blog last month.
Singapore Contractors Association president Ho Nyok Yong noted that the dependency ratio ceiling reduction for S Pass holders deals the industry a double blow, as the construction sector is in need of middle-management staff, such as foremen and supervisors. "We want to hire Singaporeans, but the fact is that many are not willing to do it," he said.
Using prefabricated units - a practice the Government has been encouraging - can help to speed up construction and ease the need for manpower. "Prefab is the way to go, if contractors want to manage costs better," said Mr Ong Chong Hua, executive director of Ho Bee Group. "I see a lot of contractors adopting the methods, so I believe over time we can be less dependent on foreign manpower.
But Straits Construction director Kenneth Loo felt this would not mitigate the short-term manpower crunch: "Construction is labour-intensive ... whatever (productivity) improvements we make can't make up for the shortfall in supply at such a short notice."
Businesses in the services sector also decried the measures, noting the uncertain economic outlook. "This adds to our cost pressures at a very tough time," said Ms Christine Chan, head of human resources at Riverview Hotel. "Of course we support raising productivity, but there is a limit - it still takes a person to serve tea and coffee."
Mr Howard Lo, owner of Standing Sushi Bar, added: "I (have) been fielding requests to franchise overseas but, since I would need to send some of my staff overseas to train up the folk there, it would be hard for me to find people to fill in here in Singapore."
Aung San Suu Kyi wins right to run in Burma elections:
ReplyDeleteBurma's election commission has given the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi the green light to run for parliamentary byelections, another step toward political openness in a country emerging from nearly half a century of military rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi announced her intention last month to stand in elections in April but was waiting for official approval from the commission, which said it had to scrutinise her eligibility.
A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's party said the commission approved her candidacy and would make a formal announcement on Monday. "There is no objection to her nomination and we can say that her candidacy is officially accepted," Nyan Win said.
The new, nominally civilian government, which took office last March, has surprised even some of the country's toughest critics by releasing hundreds of political prisoners, signing ceasefire deals with ethnic rebels, increasing media freedoms and easing censorship laws.
Burma's government hopes the rapid changes will prompt the west to lift economic sanctions that were imposed on the country during the military junta's rule. Western governments and the United Nations have said they will review sanctions only after gauging whether the April polls are carried out freely and fairly.
The election is being held to fill 48 parliamentary seats vacated by lawmakers who were appointed to the cabinet and other posts.
Even if Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party wins all 48 seats, it will have minimal power. The 440-seat lower house of parliament is heavily weighted with military appointees and allies of the former junta.
But a victory would be historic for Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. She would have a voice in parliament for the first time after decades as the country's opposition leader. Her party won a sweeping victory in the 1990 general election but the junta refused to honour the results.
Aung San Suu Kyi will run for a seat representing Kawhmu, a poor district south of Yangon where villagers' livelihoods were devastated by cyclone Nargis in 2008.
There are many different types of leaders and leadership styles. Sometimes, a leadership of a country might not be in the hands of one person, but of a group who tries to retain power over an 'inferior' populace. Leaders, or the leader class of a society, might try to retain power by use of fear and cult of personality, similar to how Jack uses fear of the Beast and his own strength to retain power of his tribe in LoTF.
ReplyDeleteOne real life example of such a style of leadership could be that of North Korea. North Korea's leadership is creating a cult of personality for Kim Jong Un, as a "Great Successor", ready to lead his country against the "imperialists". Even former leaders, such as Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, are still revered by the populace, and still formally have positions of power in the country. This is a deliberate attempt by North Korea's leadership to retain power for themselves, as despite the poverty and hardships many North Koreans face, the leadership still retains power through the cult of personality, and the lack of knowledge about the real world. Their desire for leadership is not for the betterment of their people, but for the sake of fulfilling their own desire for power.
from THE NEW YORK TIMES
ReplyDeleteCorrection Appended
(first part) SEOUL, South Korea — When tens of thousands of South Koreans spilled into central Seoul on Tuesday in the country’s largest antigovernment protest in 20 years, the police built a barricade with shipping containers. They coated them with oil and filled them with sandbags so protesters could not climb or topple them to march on President Lee Myung-bak’s office a couple of blocks away.
Faced with the wall, people pasted identical leaflets on it, their message dramatically summarizing Mr. Lee’s image and alienation from many of his people: “This is a new border for our country. From here starts the U.S. state of South Korea.”
The protests illuminate the shift in President Lee’s political fortunes. When he was elected last December, South Koreans hailed him as a long-awaited leader who could salvage their country’s alliance with the United States, which was strained under Mr. Lee’s left-leaning predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun. Only six months later, Mr. Lee finds Koreans vilifying him as something Mr. Roh famously said he would never become: “a Korean leader kowtowing to the Americans.”
“While championing a pragmatic leadership, Mr. Lee overlooked Koreans’ nationalistic pride,” said Choi Jin, director of the Institute of Presidential Leadership in Seoul. “If what troubled Roh’s presidency was too much nationalism, Lee’s problem is a lack of it.”
The chants showed that the demonstration was not merely about the president’s unpopular decision to lift an import ban on American beef. It also tapped into Korean pride.
This is a small country in a strategic location with a deep sense of grievance about being manipulated by the great powers around it. Chinese emperors demanded tribute from Korea; Japanese occupiers forbade Koreans to speak their own language; American, Chinese and Russian cold war rivalries divided Korea in two. While mostly approving of their alliance with the United States, South Koreans remain acutely sensitive to any suggestion that they must do America’s bidding.
Mr. Lee’s slumping popularity was sown in his first glorious moment as president.
On April 19, he became the first South Korean leader to be invited to the United States presidential retreat of Camp David, Md. Days before the visit, his aides billed the meeting with President Bush as a momentous event — one that never would have been granted to leaders like Mr. Roh, who was often accused of being too nationalistic and anti-American.
South Koreans who had fought alongside the Americans during the Korean War in the early 1950s took to the streets in joy. They trusted Mr. Lee to save the country from what they called “leftist, anti-U.S. and pro-North Korean elements,” like Mr. Roh.
On the eve of the summit meeting, Seoul agreed to lift a five-year-old ban on American beef imports, imposed after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the United States. By traveling with a political gift for Mr. Bush, Mr. Lee demonstrated how eager he was to rebuild ties with Washington.
Little did he apparently imagine the reaction at home, among young South Koreans who had been watching with a cold eye.
“What he did was little different from an old Korean king offering tribute to a Chinese emperor,” said Kim Sook-yi, a 35-year-old homemaker who joined the protest on Tuesday with her two children. “This time, we give a tribute to Washington? It’s humiliating, bad for education for Korean children.”
Different kinds of leaderships can be seen in different parts of the world and even in our history.
ReplyDeleteThere have been democracy, communism and ruling by tyranny.
Democracy is that of Singapore and most of the way developed countries govern their lands. Communism was popular in China where everyone is equal. Some leaders were also tyrants where their countries are filled with corruption but they sit back and do nothing so long as they benefit,
Different kinds of leaderships will show different kinds of reactions from the citizens of the country. This will then lead to different consequences.
(part two) The demonstrations began on May 2, when hundreds of teenagers held a candlelight vigil in Seoul, and quickly snowballed. By this week they had become so overpowering that the entire cabinet offered to resign.
ReplyDeleteForeign bloggers watching the brouhaha ask: Why would thousands of South Koreans join protests about mad cow disease but not ask why Americans are not protesting American beef? Would South Koreans demonstrate with the same intensity if the beef came from Australia or New Zealand? What about Korean-Americans who eat American beef?
To many South Koreans, however, the beef dispute is not entirely about health concerns or science. It is not entirely about the economy, either — beef from the United States is half the price of homegrown meat. To them, it is also the latest test of whether their leader can resist pressure from superpowers, even if there is good reason for the pressure, as is the case in the beef dispute. South Korea had promised to lift the ban once the World Organization for Animal Health ruled American beef fit for consumption, as it did in May last year.
South Korea has built the world’s 13th largest economy largely through exports. Nonetheless, historical resentments linger.
South Koreans in their 40s remember words from a popular childhood song handed down from their fathers and grandfathers: “Don’t be cheated by the Soviets. Don’t trust the Americans. Or the Japanese will rise again.” Koreans still chafe at the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea after liberating it from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.
Whether a South Korean leader can navigate this current of nationalistic sentiment can make or break his career.
When two South Korean teenage girls were killed by an American military armored vehicle six years ago, it first appeared to be nothing more than a tragic traffic accident. But many young Koreans who had grown to regard the American military presence with humiliation rallied in protest.
Mr. Roh, a relative political neophyte, quickly rode the wave into election victory.
But South Koreans soon grew tired of Mr. Roh’s ideological pronouncements, which often strained the alliance with the United States. They gave a landslide victory to Mr. Lee, who promised to bring pragmatism into the presidency.
“Lee was overconfident,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Soongsil University. “He thought since people rejected Roh, he could go just the opposite.”
Many experts in Seoul draw a careful line between nationalism and anti-Americanism among Koreans. They say the recent series of demonstrations were more an expression of the former than the latter. But the divide gets thin sometimes.
Alexander Vershbow, the United States ambassador in South Korea, got a taste of the simmering anti-American sentiment when he emphasized the safety of American beef last week. “We hope that Koreans will begin to understand more about the science and about the facts of American beef,” he said.
The next day, politicians and protesters called the comment an “insult to all Korean citizens.”
Jeon Sang-il, a sociologist at Sogang University, said the men seemed to have shot themselves in the foot.
“These days, Koreans say there are only two anti-Americans in South Korea,” Mr. Jeon said. “One is Lee Myung-bak and the other Vershbow. They stoked anti-American sentiments with what they did and what they said.”
Mr. Vershbow expressed regret that he was misunderstood.
Refugees attacked
ReplyDeletePowerful groups such as the Misrata militia brigades have taken revenge on their enemies, in their case the Tawergha tribe, which they accuse of perpetrating war crimes in their city on behalf of Gaddafi.
Some 30,000 Tawergha have fled from their home town near Misrata. On 6 February, some of these refugees were attacked at a refugee centre near Tripoli, and eight killed by men who the Tawerghans say were from the same armed groups.
There is little evidence of any government attempt to protect the refugees or punish those responsible.
This type of incident brings us to the concerns of foreign governments. Some diplomats here are beginning to wonder aloud whether the revolution's conduct towards its former opponents might sow the seeds of a new insurgency.
They speak about former regime supporters as "the 20%". One comments: "What we cannot afford is for it to become 70/30 or even 60/40."
In their meetings with Libyan government officials, French, British, or Italian officials urge them to speed up the processing of detainees, which by some estimates number more than 8,000.
Many of these people have been refused contacts with lawyers and given no idea when they might be tried, say human rights workers.
Former Gaddafi strongholds like Sirte, Bani Walid, and Tajoura contain many embittered people who can expect little assistance from their new masters.
With its great national wealth, small population, absence of sectarian tensions, and the absence of a large occupying army (as in Iraq), the odds ought to be weighted in favour of Libya's new rulers.
Many people are waiting for June's elections for them to raise their game and demonstrate effective control of the country.
In that sense, the message that "tomorrow will be better" seems as much of a plea or a pledge of faith than any sort of statement of certainty.
EVERETT, Washington: President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to boost US exports to expand job creation on a visit to a facility of aviation giant Boeing, which he hailed as an example of revitalised industry.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of a three-day tour focused on US industry and to raise funds for his November re-election bid, Obama promised not to "stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules," and benefit from what he called "unfair" trade practices.
"I will go anywhere in the world to open up new markets for American products," the US leader vowed.
In a cavernous Boeing hanger, Obama praised the company's new Dreamliner aircraft, which made its first commercial flight in October and is now getting a string of orders from around the world after years of delays that cost the firm billions of dollars in lost or canceled orders.
Obama, criticised this week by Republican president candidates Mitt Romney for supposed weakness dealing with Beijing, meanwhile insisted his administration was committed to "investigating unfair trade practices" in rival manufacturing bases in China, and in Europe, to ensure a better environment for US industry.
He also called on Congress to reauthorise the Export-Import Bank, announcing the bank would be launching a new programme to aid smaller businesses with exports.
The effort, he said, would "give American companies a fair shot by matching the unfair export financing that their competitors receive from other countries."
After the economy's upswing in January thanks to a surge in job creation, with the unemployment rate falling for the fifth straight month to 8.3 percent, Obama said companies like Boeing was an example for a strengthening environment for manufacturers.
"Last year orders of commercial aircraft rose by more than 50 percent. And to meet that demand, Boeing hired 13,000 workers all across America," the US leader said, saying it was "a great example of what American manufacturing can do."
Obama was to return to the US capital later Friday night after the three-day tour that took him to a factory in Wisconsin, and fund-raisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco to build his campaign war chest.
(1/2)BBC news:Akhilesh Yadav emerges as challenger in Uttar Pradesh
ReplyDeleteWith the regional Samajwadi Party emerging as the main challenger to the government of Dalit icon Mayawati in the ongoing assembly elections in India's Uttar Pradesh state, the spotlight is on Akhilesh Yadav, the party's young president who is being credited with its turnaround. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Lucknow profiles the new star on the politically crucial state's horizon.
A few hundred people have gathered on a winter evening by the roadside in a crowded commercial area in Lucknow.
Overhead hangs red bunting with the smiling faces of party leaders and pictures of a bicycle - their election symbol.
Almost all the men in the crowd sport cloth caps in red - the party colour.
Continue reading the main story
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We received a lot of benefits when his father was chief minister”
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Isa Kalim
Weaver
Soon, a bright red bus, escorted by a couple of dozen young men on bikes, comes into view and the crowd gets into a frenzy.
"Long live Akhilesh bhaiyya [brother]," they chant.
The bus comes to a halt in the middle of the road and Mr Yadav is hoisted onto the roof on a mechanical lift.
The member of parliament is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav - a former wrestler who served three times as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
He is the star campaigner for the Samajwadi Party and the reception he gets here befits a rockstar.
His flag-waving supporters surround the bus and throw rose petals at him. They call out his name and raise their hands to touch him.
Many in the crowd take his photo on their mobile phone cameras.
Mr Yadav appears at ease with the adulation, bending forward to catch the marigold garlands flung at him from below. He knows nearly all the party workers by name and invites a few of them to stand on the bus with him.
(2/2)
ReplyDelete'Love people'
His speech is short and lively. He uses humour while listing the failures of the Mayawati government. He pokes fun at her for spending billions of rupees on building parks to Dalit icons and erecting their statues.
"Some people love stone statues, but we love people," he says to loud claps and cheers.
More than 40 million voters in Uttar Pradesh are below the age of 30
He talks about what his party will do if elected: "We will give laptops to students who finish class 12 and tablets to those who complete class 10." His young supporters cheer wildly.
In a country where age is regarded as a sign of wisdom and where most politicians are in their 70s and 80s, Mr Yadav at 38 is rather young.
But he is not new to politics. First elected to parliament in 2000, he is serving his third term as MP.
"Two years ago, he took over as the party president and has been leading the effort to win back power in the state," says Lucknow-based journalist Sanjay Bhatnagar.
"He is spontaneous, he has a presence, he has his own ideas. His father opposed English for being a language of the elite and computers for taking away jobs of poor people.
"But he's a contemporary and educated person. He has contributed a youth flavour to the party manifesto by talking about English and laptops for students."
It's a clever strategy in a state where 40 million voters are below the age of 30.
Mr Bhatnagar says Mr Yadav is being projected as the next leader by the party: "Yadav senior is getting on in years and his health problems are well-known. If the party wins, Akhilesh will be the obvious choice as chief minister."
Litmus test
Comparisons are also being made with Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty who is leading India's ruling Congress party's revival bid in the crucial state elections.
These elections are being seen as a litmus test of their leadership.
Mr Bhatnagar says: "Comparisons with Rahul Gandhi are natural. But Rahul is a national figure, whereas Akhilesh is purely a state leader.
"Rahul is a crowd puller but he is an outsider here. He has an urban image whereas Akhilesh has a more rural image which in Uttar Pradesh is an advantage."
For Mr Yadav though, his main adversary is Ms Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Since September, when the election campaign went into top gear, he has covered a lot of miles.
"I have travelled 8,000km (4,970 miles) by road and visited more than 250 of the 403 constituencies," he tells the BBC.
Now in the thick of the campaign, he is always on the move. He covers four to five constituencies a day, hopping from one meeting to another in a helicopter.
He offers me a seat in his helicopter during his tour of Ambedkar Nagar - a stronghold of the BSP which won all five seats in the district in the 2007 assembly elections.
We visit four constituencies and at each one he is welcomed by thousands of flag-waving, slogan-shouting supporters.
And his speeches are tailored to address local issues.
Two different leaderships in Libya
ReplyDeletepart 1 (the former part is part 2)
TRIPOLI: On the outskirts of Misrata, there is a poster by the roadside. It is a slickly produced ad, funded by local businesses, carrying the slogan "Tomorrow Will Be Better."
Does it represent the kind of inherent optimism you find in many Islamic countries? Or is it an admission that, one year after the revolution to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi began, there are many respects in which there is disappointment and apprehension?
There is, without doubt, enormous pride at having toppled the old order. Point a camera at people on the streets celebrating and they will tell you how happy they are, and exult that "Libya is Free!"
Gada Mahfud, a writer in The Tripoli Post, referred this week, however, to "clouds of pessimism in the hearts and minds of Libyans", and this fits with the mood of a good number of people I have spoken to.
Many insist that they cannot say these things publicly, which itself prompts questions about freedom of speech. One of them, commenting on recent power cuts, told me: "This did not happen before the revolution, believe me. Everything in Libya was fine except for Gaddafi and his chums".
International disquiet
If there is a hope that "tomorrow will be better" on the part of many Libyans, there is also a disquiet on the part of some of the revolution's foreign backers.
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The country has lurched from a dictatorship, complete with a cult of the personality, to a collective leadership with a cult of obscurity”
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The Europeans are increasingly uncomfortable with reports emanating from Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontiers, and Human Rights Watch, detailing widespread arbitrary detention and torture. Frankly, these issues do not top the concerns of the average Libyan, so let's return to them later.
The type of problems they care most about are those of economic stagnation; an apparent paralysis on the part of central government; and the fact that "law and order" remain largely in the hands of militia groups from the revolutionary strongholds.
Foreign governments have recently unfrozen more than $60bn (£38bn) in Libyan government cash, and as oil production climbs back towards 2m barrels a day, revenues are pouring in.
Inevitably, people are asking why unemployment (estimated variously at 10-20%) is, if anything, increasing and hundreds of government construction contracts remain suspended when the country has so much money.
Flying here from Istanbul, I chatted on the plane to a Turkish businessman on his eighth visit since the revolution, trying once again to get a building project re-started.
Lack of public debate
People who want answers to these questions find it very hard to get them. The country is ruled by an interim government, responsible to the National Transitional Council (NTC), the self-appointed body that co-ordinated the revolution.
Both are meant to step aside after elections in June, and there is a feeling that nobody wants to take big decisions before then, for example to start building highways or other major infrastructure projects.
The new ministers and NTC are remote figures who most Libyans cannot name, some of whom were not publicly identified for months.
Dominic Asquith, the British ambassador here, told us: "The whole process of communication between government and people is still a work in progress."
The country has lurched from a dictatorship, complete with a cult of the personality, to a collective leadership with a cult of obscurity.
As for public debate or opposition, it has been limited by the murder of some prominent figures and the apparent impunity of the militia bands.
Those who have died range from Abdel Fattah Younes, who defected from the Gaddafi regime at the start of the revolution and commanded the rebel forces for a couple of months, to a former regime diplomat found dead a couple of weeks ago with signs of torture.
From The Guardian
ReplyDeletePanama's village leader Silvia Carrera defies a president (Part 1)
As she stands among villagers in the highlands of western Panama, their chosen leader, Silvia Carrera, is an image of bucolic harmony. Then Carrera, elected chief or general cacique of the Ngäbe-Buglé community, gestures to a woman who hands her a bag of spent US riot-control equipment – rubber bullet casings, shotgun shells, sting-ball grenades, teargas canisters.
Panama national police, she explains, used these against her people only days earlier to break up a protest against government plans for a vast copper mine and hydroelectric schemes on their territory. Three young Ngäbe-Buglé men were killed, dozens were wounded and more than 100 detained.
What began with villagers at Ojo de Agua in Chiriquí province using trees and rocks to block the Pan-American highway earlier this month – trapping hundreds of lorries and busloads of tourists coming over the border from Costa Rica for six days – has now placed Panama at the forefront of the enduring and often violent clash between indigenous peoples and global demand for land, minerals and energy. Carrera is emerging as a pivotal figure in the conflict.
"Look how they treat us. What do we have to defend ourselves? We don't have anything; we have only words," Carrera protests. "We are defenceless. We don't have weapons. We were attacked and it wasn't just by land but by air too. Everything they do to us, to our land, to our companions who will not come back to life, hurts us."
At the height of the protests, thousands of Ngäbe-Buglé came down from the hills to block the highway; in El Volcán and San Félix they briefly routed police and set fire to a police station. In Panama City, students and unions joined with indigenous protesters marching almost daily on the residence of President Ricardo Martinelli. Some daubed walls near the presidential palace with the words "Martinelli assassin".
Carrera pulls from her satchel a hastily drawn-up agreement brokered by the Catholic church that obliges the Panamanian national assembly to discuss the issue. It did not guarantee that the projects would be halted. Neither she nor the Ngäbe-Buglé people expressed optimism that the government would keep its word on the mining issue.
"The village doesn't believe it," she says, "and it wouldn't be the first time that the government threw around lies. They do not listen to the village. There was a similar massacre in 2010 and 2011, when there were deaths and injuries. Some were blinded, some of our companions lost limbs." A cry goes up: "No to the miners! No to the hydroelectric!"
The Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, or territory, sits atop the huge Cerro Colorado copper deposit, the richest mineral deposit in Panama, possibly in all of central America. Pro-business Martinelli, a self-made supermarket tycoon, signed a deal with Canada's Inmet Mining with a 20% Korean investment to extract as much as 270,000 tons of copper a year, along with gold and silver, over the 30-year lifespan of the proposed mine. Panama's tribes form 10% of the population but, through a system of autonomous comarcas, they control 30% of the land, giving them greater leverage.
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteMartinelli could hardly have found a prouder adversary than Carrera who, at 42 and elected only in September, is the first woman to lead Panama's largest indigenous tribe. "The land is our mother. It is because of her that we live," she says simply. "The people will defend our mother." Carrera holds Martinelli in scant regard. She accuses him of "mocking" indigenous people and considers his administration a government of businessmen who "use us to entertain themselves, saying one thing today and another tomorrow".
Two days before the police cleared the roadblocks, the president invited her to the Palacio de las Garzas in Panamá City for a "good meal and a drink". The Ngäbe-Buglé chief, who received education to secondary level, was unimpressed. The offer, she said, revealed "a lack of respect".
In past mining disputes, the government blamed "foreign actors" and journalists for stirring up trouble. Last week it accused the Ngäbe-Buglé of "kidnapping" and "hostage-taking" when referring to the travellers delayed on the highway. By the time the smoke cleared, Panama's foreign minister, Roberto Henríquez, conceded that his government was "only producing deeper wounds".
Fearful of the environmental and political fallout, governments throughout central America are tightening mining controls. But Martinelli, who came to power with the campaign slogan "walking in the shoes of the people", seems determined to find a way around legislation that protects indigenous mineral, water and environmental resources from exploitation.
Despite the region's history of conflict and shady banking practices, Panama is aggressively positioning itself both as an economic haven (GDP growth is running at close to 7.5%) and a tourist and eco-tourist destination. New skyscrapers thrust up into the humidity like a mini-Dubai; chic restaurants and hotels are opening up.
Officials express concern that the Ngäbe-Buglé and other indigenous disputes may undo Panama's carefully orchestrated PR push, spotlighting the disparity of wealth in a country where 40% of the population live in poverty. "The government says Good, Panama is growing its economy. Yet the economy is for a few bellaco [macho men]," Carrera says. "But progress should be for the majority and for this we will go into the street, and from frontier to frontier, to protest."
At the bottom of the hill the general cacique waits for a bus to take her and several dozen women to Panama City, 200km to the west, for another anti-government rally, where they will be joined by the Kuna and representatives of the Emberá and Wounaan peoples, who are opposing encroachment of farmers on their land in the eastern provinces. Carrera vows that the Ngäbe-Buglé campaign will continue. "We are not violent. We just want to reclaim our rights and justice. Above all, we want to live in peace and tranquility."
There are many different leadership styles in the world. some dictate while others respect the voices of their people. Here is an example of a dictator, who rule by fear and violence like Jack Merridew in LOTF.
ReplyDeleteIsaias Afewerki, Eritrea
Years in power: 20
Afewerki, 65, once led Eritrea to independence, but today he deprives his citizens of all freedoms. There is no formal constitution, and every male starting at age 18 must enter “national service,” which is forced labor of indefinite length (evaders are jailed or killed). People with unsanctioned religious beliefs are imprisoned and tortured, as are journalists and activists. More than 50,000 Eritreans have escaped to refugee camps in Ethiopia. Western officials allege that Afewerki is aiding Al Qaeda–linked militants in Somalia.
Potential promising leaders can also let us down by pretending to be ignorant about the law which is the cornerstone of civilisation. This unscrupulous bahviour can be seen from this example of Hong Kong's candidate for its leader Henry Tang.
ReplyDeleteHONG KONG (AFP) - The fraying election hopes of China's reported favourite to become the next leader of Hong Kong were dealt another blow on Sunday with a poll showing most citizens think he should quit the race.
The University of Hong Kong survey heaped more pressure on Mr Henry Tang, whose campaign was thrown into disarray last week by the discovery of an illegal underground leisure space in a house belonging to his wife.
The wealthy Mr Tang, who many believe is Beijing's preferred candidate to become Hong Kong's next chief executive, admitted that he knew about the unauthorised structure, but blamed his wife for coming up with the idea.
The poll carried out Thursday and Friday at the height of the scandal found 51.3 per cent of the 516 people surveyed thought Mr Tang should abandon his campaign.
The alleged involvement of a school principal as a client of an online prostitution ring now under probe by the police seems to have raised more concern among Singaporeans than the reports that several top civil servants were also customers.
ReplyDeletePeople rounded up for investigations now also include several other public servants such as a police officer and professionals like lawyers and bank officers, according to the latest update by The Straits Times.
According to responses gathered by Yahoo! Singapore in the wake of the police investigation, many Singaporeans understand the temptation of lust and are willing to overlook the ethics allegedly breached by the civil servants involved.
But they are not as understanding in the case of the principal, who reportedly resigned from his post at a top school after police conducted an island-wide operation to bust an online vice syndicate in December last year.
Said Angeline Ang, a parent of two teenage sons, “It was very alarming as I didn’t expect a principal to be involved in such a case… principals and teachers are meant to be looked upon as someone to be respected, with a reserved personality. What’s more, given that it’s a prostitution vice, I think it’s even more shocking and surprising to a lot of parents.”
Higher salary may attract higher quality, but how can one ensure that higher quality is doing their job? Is there any system in place to appraise them on their performance?
Britain managed to endure the horrors of Hitler and the World War 2 was because of the brilliant leadership of then PM of UK, Winston Churchill. He managed to rally his country in difficult times, during hardships, in midst of adversities and a huge world conflict. He gave rousing speeches, his firm and confident character, motivated the people of England to stand and fight the war till the end. He vowed that they "shall never surrender".
ReplyDeleteHis display of firm and good leadership was especially clear when the Blitz occurred. Many cities were bombed, thousands died and infrastructure vanished. But he was confident and had faith in his people and rallied them against the brutality of Hitler's war machine.
His ability to inspire as a leader, helped Britain to pull off one of her greatest battles in history.