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Mum's the Word On Google Attack At Davos
theodp writes "BusinessWeek reports that the cyber attack on Google was the elephant-in-the-room at the annual meeting of world leaders in Davos. 'China didn't want to discuss Google,' Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank AG and a co-chair of this year's World Economic Forum, said in an interview. China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang made that clear, he added. Even Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn't bring up China, and Bill Gates was mum on the topic in an interview. The reluctance of companies to talk about China illustrates the pressure on them to protect their business in the country, while the US government doesn't want to upset Chinese investors, said Andy Mok of Red Pagoda Concepts LLC. 'People have their commercial interests,' explained Deutsche Bank's Ackermann."
and the most powerful military.
The US spends more money in total than the next dozen or so nations combined: http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#InContextUSMilitarySpendingVersusRestoftheWorld
Note how the US is just slliiiiiiiightly less than half of that pie chart, and the United states spent 5.8 times what China did in 2008. Let's also not forget who is embroiled in two wars- Iraq and Afghanistan.
Per capita for the US, looks to be about $2500 in 2004, now $3200: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PerCapitaInflationAdjustedDefenseSpending.PNG
Why not have a look at where that places us relative to everyone else? For some reason "Nationmaster" doesn't list the US, but here you can see that figure is $1000 more than the next-highest, Israel (all the figures are from 2004): http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_exp_dol_fig_percap-expenditures-dollar-figure-per-capita
GDP-wise, America outspends at a percentage twice the world average; Russia actually beat the US relative to GDP on a couple of occasions, but that probably has more to do with Russia's GDP being in the toilet.
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ms_mil_xpnd_gd_zs&idim=country:USA:CHN:GBR:RUS&tdim=true&tstart=567993600000&tunit=Y&tlen=20
Please help metamoderate.
Do YOU want to die for the Kuomintang? If so, share why, and share why Americans should want their sons and daughters to die too?
Nope. But maybe you could shed some light on something, being a foreign politics expert. Why again was it allright for the US sons and daughters to invade Iraq and die there too?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Don't forget about dropping nuclear weapons in the center of heavily populated civilian centers with no military targets whatsoever. [emphasis added]
Morality of the atomic bombing aside, that is not a factual statement. Japan had a policy of merging the civilian and military throughout the war, to the point of surrounding potential bombing targets with captured British and American POW's lined up for slaughter.
From Wikipedia:
Nagasaki:
The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials.
Hiroshima:
A number of military camps were located nearby, including the headquarters of the Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops.
Debate is good, just be sure to get your facts straight.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Yes, the western corporate world WANTS a piece of China's market. But, the idiots don't realize that China is quietly eroding the west's traditional market in the "3rd world", and at the same time, impairing the west's ability to even produce anything to sell. Whatever lands in China, belongs to China - copyrighted material, patented material, machinery is reverse engineered and reproduced, processing methods are duplicated, everything. If you bring it to China, it belongs to China, no matter what some worthless contract might say. Corporate talking heads need to take another look at their worthless contracts. Bottom line says, "You supply the technology, the skills, and the necessary hardware, we'll supply the cheap labor, and the profits belong to us. Any attempt to cancel this contract voids any claim that you had to your technology, your skills, and your hardware, which all reverts to governmental ownership."
Seriously, you need paranoid lawyers who understand Chinese law to really examine those contracts. They don't say what all those idiots with dreams of fabulous wealth THINK they say.
Add to that list: half of Eastern Europe, most of the northern *stans (including Afghanistan), and so on.
Not to mention the travesties committed in Tibet and throughout western China to quell "dissent".
And Georgia was just recently. Like, under a year and a half ago. (But I'm sure Georgia deserved it, that bitch. How dare she leave Mother Russia.)
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