Nuclear power dream or nightmare?

Anyone remembers the report on Malaysia’s plan for nuclear power plants in the ST recently? It seems that among the gungho Asean countries, those thinking too big with their swollen heads and those who think they need to keep growing their populations to achieve economic growth at all cost, there is no other option than nuclear. Oil is going too be too expensive in times to come and the growing demand for more energy with bigger population and bigger appetite means nuclear and nothing else.

What is so beautiful about the Malaysian nuclear plan is the location of their nuclear power plants, one near Penang and one near Sinkieland. Obviously these have nothing to do with the concentration of Chinese population in Penang, Sinkieland and Southern Johore. The main reason for the choice of locations is simply to get them as far away from KL as possible. A nuclear mishap is going to neutralise a sizable area for a long time as can be seen in Fukushima , Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in the US. And the heroes who are brave enough to resettle in the radioactive zone must be praying to have godzilla or ultraman as their offsprings.

Sinkieland is equally deadset on the nuclear option I think. What to do when population growth is a must or cannot be slowed down without affecting economic growth? They must be planning for 10m or 20m population in the future and are seriously investing in research and development of nuclear plants here. And the snake oil sellers would never tell you the whole truth about the risk involved. Even a 0.0001% risk is too high a risk in the context of Sinkieland. We can never think of locating our nuclear plants in KL or Penang for sure. So how far and how safe would it be in Tuas, Changi or Tekong?

If the nuclear madness becomes a reality, one can safely predict that sometime in 2050, 2150 or 2250 Sinkieland could be a declared nuclear hazard zone with no inhabitants. Mathematically the numbers generated must still look good and safe and the snake oil sellers must still be mesmerising their listeners on how safe nuclear plants are in this piece of rock. Technology is so advanced that nuclear power stations are absolutely safe. Have no fear. So lucky that we would not be around to say I told you so or to face the consequences.

Early Autumn

A piece of rar art painted by Mother Nature.

Imposing West's will on China goes against global norms

Updated: 2012-09-01 07:59

By Guo Jiping ( China Daily)

China's continuous gains in strength have fanned the flames of envy, misgiving and even horror among certain Westerners, leading some to slander Beijing's development, squeeze its strategic space and challenge its main interests.
China's fast economic development over the past 30-odd years has not prevented the spread of empty talk about subjects such as "China's collapse", "China's responsibility" and "China's expansion". The country's rapid gain in international influence has been accompanied by a so-called alliance of values, the "return to the Asia-Pacific" strategy and similar Western initiatives.
Certain Westerners are always trying to contend that China's achievements are the "products of a distorted political system". Even Chinese athletes who excelled in the just-concluded London Olympics have seen their praiseworthy performances come under the harsh light of such criticism.
China has consistently walked the road of peaceful development and held high the banner of cooperation. As early as in the 1970s, the late leader Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China's reform and opening-up, solemnly vowed at a United Nations assembly that China will never seek hegemony. The ideals of peace and harmony are upheld in China's millennium-old traditional culture and are rooted deeply in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people.
A country can forge a suitable path for development only by conducting explorations in accordance with its national conditions, instead of by simply following other countries' methods. The Chinese people find no fault in the road Western countries have taken and only ask that the road they have chosen be accorded the same sort of respect. Common sense dictates that the only fit judges of a country's path of development are the people of that country themselves.
The Chinese are satisfied with the direction development has taken them. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, they are now more satisfied with their prevailing path of development and government than many other peoples in the world are with theirs.
Western countries, in one moment, accuse China of hampering the entry of foreign companies into its market and then, in the next, conjure up various pretexts to sabotage plans to liberalize trade and investment.
The Chinese government places a priority on protecting intellectual property rights, knowing well that they pertain to the openness of the country's economy. In the decades since China's reform and opening-up, the country has never slackened its efforts to safeguard such rights and has continuously worked to perfect its legal system.
China has also taken measures to coordinate global work related to energy conservation and climate change. China is committed to being able to say by 2020 that it is emitting 40 percent to 45 percent less carbon dioxide for each unit of its gross domestic product than it was in 2005, and to having 15 percent of its primary energy come from renewable, nuclear and other non-fossil sources of energy.
Despite all of this, some Westerners seem to be willfully ignoring China's unremitting work to meet international accords. Disregarding China's low amount of energy use per capita and low emissions of carbon dioxide per capita, and its efforts to conserve energy and reduce emissions, they try to place the entire blame for global warming on China.
Yet they cannot ignore that China's remarkable achievements over the past 30 years have shaken the "moral code" Western countries have attempted to use to rule the world. China's success once again proves that there is no one-size-fits-all method for ensuring a country's development.
China will unwaveringly travel a development road that merely suits its national conditions and is in no way intended to promote "ideological competition". At the same time, China will not tolerate attempts to squeeze its development space and disturb its development process.
With the quickening pace of globalization, China and Western countries should cooperate more with each other in complementary ways. This will not only bring strength to their development, but also improve international relations and make bigger contributions to world peace and prosperity.
To this end, China and Western countries should try to resolve their disputes in a prudent manner as part of efforts to strengthen mutual trust and reduce misunderstanding and misgivings.
At the moment, China's priorities are in finding better ways to handle the country's domestic affairs, achieve development and make further progress along a socialist road with Chinese characteristics.
The author is a commentator at People's Daily and this article was first carried in that newspaper.

(China Daily 09/01/2012 page5)

Assault on the dull Sinkie mind

Unknowingly, unthinkingly, the Sinkies have been under constant and repetitive attacks on their ability and confidence. Today, many Sinkies did not have a sense of well being and self worth. They lack confidence and cower in the presence of foreign talents, even those from the third world countries and working under some with dubious or maybe even fake credentials. This sickness has transcended the country and if not arrested, Sinkies will turn themselves into third world people in their first world home. The half baked foreigners are acting smug and holding the Sinkies in contempt behind their backs.

The Sinkies have been told that they are daft, lazy, uninspiring, lack creativity, no drive, unproductive. They are even told that they are irresponsible with their money and would gamble them away. But it is alright for others to gamble with their money and lose them in the billions.

And a simple thing like building homes for the people, with all the money and resources they could not do it well. By not building, they created a big shortage to impose all kinds of silly rules to tell the daft Sinkies why they have to wait for years to get their flats. And many were excluded from buying on the excuse that they would deprive those who needed more from getting their flats. Of course daft Sinkies believe in the stories and started attacking one another for depriving others the chance of getting their flats.

On the other hand, foreigners were praised as the talents that are here to help the daft Sinkies. Without the foreign talents the daft Sinkies would not be able to have a better life. While we are a top financial centre, we claimed that we have no finance talents and have to go to small towns that have medieval little banking systems to recruit their finance talents to run our world class banks. We are one of the most highly wired and computerised city but our IT talents are all kaput, or no talent. Again we go to small little towns to hire their IT talents with many haven’t even hold a laptop or an android phone in their hands.

Maybe it is true. Sinlieland is what it is today because of the smart foreigners. Sinkies are only good as taxi drivers and cleaners. Sinkies were sleeping when the city developed into a world class city with the help of foreigners who could not help their own countries to progress. More reasons to thank them for contributing their talents to help Sinkieland than their own home countries. Big sacrifice really. Sinkieland is what it is today without the contribution of daft Sinkies.

The latest barrage against the Sinkies is that they are anti foreigners. And the message is being drummed in, with the media reinforcing the accusation. Sinkies are xenophobic. How many foreigners were attacked or beaten by Sinkies or the reverse? Is there a coordinated campaign to undermine the confidence of Sinkies?

Who is leading the attack on Sinkies to make them dull and daft and to feel inferior and inadequate to the foreigners from third world countries that came from third grade schools and universities while we boast of world class universities? Or our universities were built to train foreigners instead. That may be the reason why Sinkies are so untalented, and sooo lack of talent and needed to be replaced and helped by foreign talents.

Sinkies must look at the mirror and ask themselves, are they really that daft and easily branded by any tag. If they are not, what are they going to do about it? What do you think?

North Korea offering the olive branch

With the young Kim Jong Un in charge, changes are starting to take place in North Korea. So far the indicators are quite positive. He is coming on as a livelier and down to earth person, more open and easy going. There is a high and good possibility that the North Koreans would adopt the Chinese model of economic growth by opening up, like Myanmar. They have made trips to China for more talks and fact finding missions.

The latest and most promising sign is to open discussion with Japan, likely to be for aids and economic cooperation. It would be a good opportunity for Japan to open up and engage the North Koreans, extend whatever economic assistance they could to help the North Koreans to become wealthier, seeing more promises and hopes of a better life. A rich and prosperous North Korea is likely to be friendlier and less confrontational and could be an active member of the world community. It is to Japan and the South Korea’s interest to integrate the North Koreans into the world system with economic growth and less military provocations.

Japan could go one step further, as just economic growth is not enough. The centuries of historical debt, particularly of land grabs must be settled as soon as possible. Japan could stand out as the country that is genuine to bury the past by unilaterally announcing the return of all islands taken from its neighbours during its colonial days. Such a gesture will be greatly welcomed by its neighbours, and the world will see Japan in a very positive light. It will also remove forever the torn of nationalism and historical antagonism that could erupt and undermine the good relations built over the years. War is no longer an option today and the earlier the root for future wars be killed and cleared, the better for all the countries in the region. Holding on to war loots is untenable and will need to be addressed and return at some point in time.

Would Japan seize the moment and rise above selfish individual and national pride to ride this new wave of economic cooperation with its neighbours? Or would Japan arrogantly and stubbornly want to hold on to the islands it grabbed from its neighbours and eventually rekindle a bitter war of mutual self destruction? Is it worth clinging onto other people’s islands?