No Evidence for You

Just a quick note, the US and South Korea are still refusing to let North Korea inspect the evidence against them on the Cheonan sinking.

The South wants the UN to consider this a breach of the armistice, the North wants to see the evidence and the US wants, well, the news post doesn't really say what the US wants. It just seems so rudimentary to allow this it's difficult to see a real reason as to why the request of sending a team of experts is denied. It's much easier to concoct wild theories.

I'll spare you this time, but if you want to indulge youself on crazy, read the comments on the article, there's everything from keeping the US in Okinawa to World War 3.

Afghani Birth Control

According to this report from YLE (in Finnish,) the women of Afghanistan can now utilize family planning services. This includes advice, high quality information, birth control methods and training for local religious leaders. This helps improve attitudes and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Nothing wrong with this.

But, according to the report, Finland is the only outside funding country. This is what made me look for more background information. The big questions were why only one donor instead of multinational support, and why only Finland. The website of the organization in question, Marie Stopes International, provided me with a basic profile on Afghanistan and a release about the work in question.

The release, Making a Difference in Afghanistan provides confirmation for the numbers used in the YLE report and some extra information. Currently there are 15 clinics and 2 mobile units, with 52 community health workers in Afghanistan. For a nation with the highest maternal death rate in the world, this is a valuable service.

But then, as usual, we run in to problems. First of all, while less efficient, MSI offered valuable services already in 2003, not mentioned in the news. That's not the big problem however, which is that in the Afghanistan overview MSI reports they have 4 major donors: "Government of Finland; Direct Relief International; Jersey Overseas Aid Commission; Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)."

This is a problem in that YLE reported Finland as the only funder, but MSI reports Finland is working together with MSI, mentioning nothing of exclusivity. It's frustrating that YLE has no source available, no link to a press release or any lead to follow up on besides the organization's name, which provides contradicting information.

I hope the point of the report wasn't as much comment on how great Finland is than to bring up the current situation in Afghanistan, as for the latter the inconsistency doesn't detract from the article. But if YLE simply wanted to write a "go us" story they could've been more honest going about it.

Foxconn is Sheer Evil?

Foxconn to it's employees: If you want wages you can live on, fine, but we'll move the production away from here to someplace where people will settle for less. Except that in this case the salary one can live on is literally enough not to commit a suicide. It appears Southern China is too expensive for large foreign mobile phone component manufacturers and they have to relocate to Central China.

If you recall the stream of China news where employees had killed themselves, assumedly due to unworkable conditions or salaries, you probably didn't expect a turn for sheer malevolence after salary raises were announced. We'll, today's news adds insult to injury as Foxconn heads to Hebei.

Quick to pass the puck, Foxconn said Apple hadn't approved of the salary increases, which is the reason for the move.

The news is here (Yahoo!)

To me it just seems a step up from the old-fashioned "twirling my mustache" kind of evil to a more Doctor Evil type of supervillainry, where the next step is to move the workers to a lightless underground bunker to work on a death laser.

For a little background, you can read a Reuters article on Apple / Foxconn security, at the end there's a story from February when a photographer taking pictures of a component factory was assaulted but facility guards and was later told by the police that Foxconn enjoys a special status. No charges were pressed, obviously.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61G3XA20100217

Manila Graveyards, Absurd

This is not the first I've heard of people living in the graveyards of Manila, but a recent report by Cecil Morella of AFP returns to the subject.

She tells us that a graveyard in northern Manila, in the district of Novotas is home to some 600 families, some as large as 16 members. This would be bad enough, but a little digging reveals this is not the main graveyard where most of the shanties are found. Manila North Cemetary is home to some 10.000 families. Source and a photo essay here. The people live for under a dollar a day, driven to their family mausoleums or shanties, but this isn't a temporary thing.

I almost missed it, but Morella's piece notes that these are second generation graveyard dwellers. One of the interviewed, 20 year old mother of two said she would like to leave "But we were born here and we grew up here. I don't think we will be able to get out of here."

The news post is here, grim as it might be. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100628/wl_asia_afp/lifestylephilippinescemeterypoverty

Oh, and since Internet is a great but also an absurd way to read about news and places, Google now thinks I enjoy graveyards. Yeah, do a couple of searches along the lines of "manila north graveyard" and the first link will point you to Google maps which populates the window with other destinations you might be interested in, which in my case is other nearby graveyards. Sorry the pic is in Finnish though.

The other absurdity is Wikipedia, which has an article of the same place. It lists the notable burials there, as well as the intention to build a crematorium. Perhaps for people who intend to visit notable dead architects or something?

Sources, Please

I've talked of this before, but I think online news should include links to source material when convenient. The links don't really detract from the story, and if your goal is to inform someone they might help you do just that.

My point is the very well circulated memo by U.S. Congressmen Waxman and Stupak which was released here:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2017:committee-releases-details-of-bps-internal-incident-investigation&catid=122:media-advisories&Itemid=55
With a direct link to the PDF:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100525/Memo.BP.Internal.Investigation.pdf

It's been read and commented on extensively, but that's not exactly my point. I would just like it for online news media who use it to link to it. It's not much effort at all. There are potential problems you can avoid when you cite sources.

YLE, mimicking Reuters reported today that a report said BP had cut corners, ignored safety concerns and specifically mentioned falling behind schedule and failing to do proper cement sealing of the well. They mention the report was written by Waxman and Stupak, but they don't link to it.

The problem with this is that it's impossible to know whether YLE has a copy of the report or if they just assume Reuters does. I understand it's hard to scrutinize every bit of Reuters news if you want to use their material but this is a big story and has been for a while, seeing as YLE also gives special attention to it.

Now, they mention schedule issues not pointed out in the memo, which would indicate they have more material than I just linked, but I can't know for sure. Too bad, because I would have appreciated info on where to read more on this. Ooh, and the last paragraph of the news post says the accident killed 11 workers and caused significant environmental damage. That's what they have instead of background info.

YLE link, in Finnish, here:
http://yle.fi/uutiset/ulkomaat/2010/06/raportti_bpn_poraustoissa_pahoja_puutteita_1760588.html

Helping Haiti Has Failed Before, Here's Why

Foreign aid to Haiti has failed before. There are various historical, political, economical and humanitarian reasons why. I originally meant to rant about the aid following the 2010 quake, but it doesn't feel right. Instead, here's a paper from the National Academy of Public Administration on Why Foreign Aid to Haiti Failed, from 2006.

It's pretty comprehensive and should explain why billions of dollars of foreign aid didn't actually work. After reading this, it shouldn't come as a surprise how added billions in 2010 didn't and won't help even if they were rushed there. Haiti was one of the least developed countries of the world ruled by a long line of dictatorial regimes, and we shouldn't expect that to change any time soon.

http://www.napawash.org/haiti_final.pdf

Across and Back High

That there is a picture of the limit of the Finnish - Russian border zone near Imatra. As reported by YLE, it's a brisk 10 kilometer bicycle ride from Imatra to Svetogorsk, to where Finnish addicts go to inject their drugs. According to the news post there are daily visits, perhaps up to tens of regular goers, who go over the border sober but appear to be under the influence of drugs upon return.

The police can't do anything about it, as it would take the Finnish Central Police working together with the local Russian authorities to stop the visits. The border officials haven't found any drugs on the tourists.

Now, if you'd allow me to tell you how to think; please reconsider if your first thought was "that's terrible! Drugs are terrible!" This report is mildly funny and slightly badly reported with an anti-drug bias.

It's funny since the guys are hardworking enough to bicycle down that road or one similar to it sober several times a week. I bet the ride back is much better, it's downhill too. Yeah, they likely do it for cheaper drugs and maybe because of more relaxed Police control, but they certainly aren't ruining their lives with regular exercise.

And it's bad reporting because they write they go over the border to inject drugs, except they have no proof or even a quote to show there are interveinous drugs involved, the short article just uses the idea to give a negative image. It's also wrong to use a stock image of white powder in the same context for the same reason. YLE's second stock photo was of the city proper, which I don't want to copy. My image is credit to Google Maps.

Short original here:

New Follow-Up on the Cheonan Sinking

I've complained against not following up on news here before, but the Cheonan sinking story is still getting updates. Perhaps because some still wait for an U.N. resolution or the matter, or because it just makes for an interesting read, but more info comes out pretty regularly.

The following is about submarines and naval exercises, read it if you like Tom Clancy or submarines or something. The pictured sub is a larger Sang-O class which surfaced and was captured in '96, not the kind blamed for the attack.

U.S. and South Korea held a joint naval exercise on the day of the sinking. 2 U.S. destroyers and various other ships were playing hide and seek with a South Korean submarine. The Cheonan wasn't a part of this drill, it was on routine patrol, but perhaps these two weren't very far away.

Also, Cheonan was running on active sonar. This is significant in that the shooting could have been a panic move. A North Korean submarine could have been in the area monitoring the military exercise and find the corvette (either by having acquired it by sonar or by coincidence) coming straight at it. The waters around the area aren't very deep and the small submarines aren't very fast, they are very quiet. It's possible, among other possibilities, that the North Korean captain felt his only option is to fire first or see what the corvette does to him.

As an aside, submarines should be able to identify the active sonar source by sound frequency so that any submarine in the area should know whose active sonar is being used, except for very outdated sonar equipement.

It is also possible the military exercise went wrong and that it was a friendly fire incident. This is much more unlikely however. The hunted South Korean submarine wouldn't launch a live torpedo in an exercise and Cheonan wasn't even a part of the group hunting the sub. It is however possible that it was a live torpedo by mistake - if the submarine was looking for a friendly warship on purpose it just takes a human error to fire a live weapon.

Pauline Jelinek for AP reported the facts from my speculation:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100606/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_korea_ship_sinking

Please note, that behind the link monstrosity an U.S. official anonymously admits that it might have been an accident or an error instead of an attack from the North.

Coming to monitor the opposing navies would explain why a submarine and a tender left North Korean harbor just days before the incident. If anything there should be reasonable doubt as to how and why the incident occurred to not blame North Korea yet.

Stopping the Oil Stopped - Is This Correct?

Can this be right, that BP has stopped trying to plug the oil leak?

Jim Polson for Bloomberg on 1st of June has this to report:
"BP Plc has decided not to attach a second blowout preventer on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to end the flow are over until the relief wells are finished, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Thad Allen, who spoke at a press conference today."

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-01/efforts-to-end-oil-flow-from-bp-s-leaking-well-are-over-coast-guard-says.html

BP has no press release linked on their website, the main page of which is completely devoted to the spill. CNN only has a report of a saw blade being stuck, slowing down work. Nothing on the "cut and cap" operation being abandoned.

In case the CNN link works, have a vid:


What to bring home from that video? They are trying something again, except that if it works only partly (ie. they succeed in cutting but not plugging) we will see a 20% increase in oil flow in to the sea. Even if by today, Wednesday they have fixed the blade problem and started cutting again, it would take until the end of the week to have finished cutting.

The original plug, the "junk shot", "top kill" and now "cut and cap". Anyone still think this might work?

Providing Background

Since AP does not link directly to their sources, I'll help them a little.
I'm talking specifically about this post:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091028/sc_afp/chinaenvironmentgreenpeace

The news post does not make a huge deal out of a Greenpeace report about China - and they shouldn't since it's only one source. It does however note the amount of dangerous chemicals and heavy metals in the Pearl River of Southern China.

I'll refrain from commenting on Greenpeace and their style of reporting bad environmental news, but to my untrained eye the numbers on the report are quite impressive. Besides, I'm firmly in the camp that believes large Chinese factories do pollute.

Here is the link to the report I wish the original author had included:
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/hazardous-chemical-pollution-o.pdf

Yes, it's meant to be scary if you care about the Guangdong waters but damn if that isn't a lot of heavy metal in the water. Besides, you don't see anyone claiming the water isn't in use. The locals have even arranged mass swimming events in Guangzhou to prove how clean the water is. Yeah, you probably float in it very effortlessly.

Assuming a dead rat didn't float in to the Greenpeace sample jar it's a scary read. Here, I'll post a pic of some unrelated bad looking water I've seen in China just to repeat the point - China is relatively stable, but what if the rural regions run out of potable water?

A Missed Opportunity

Valio, the largest Finnish dairy company has been denied permission to advertise health benefits on some of its products. Valio Gefilus Max does not relieve your abdominal stress and Valio Evolus does not stiffen your arteries.

The news report can be found in English here:
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/10/eu_rejects_finnish_dairy_health_food_claims_1106562.html

The article is very sparse. I really would like to read a little more on this subject. I recall Finnish products with health benefits working their way to the US market where proving the health benefit was an uphill struggle. They succeeded too, if I recall what happened with Raisio's Benecol correctly.

But now Valio is mandated to stop their Gefilus ad campaign - they may still sell the drink but that's all. Actually, it's been a on the TV for a while now, they go as far as promising your money back if you don't feel any better after a while of drinking Gefilus. Now we know everyone who didn't request their money back was either lazy or enjoyed a placebo effect.

If you would like to see just how hard Valio pushes their snake oil, check you their advertisement (Finnish):
http://www.valio.fi/gefilus/?ad=gefilus

This should be quite a setback, but where are the articles on the topic? Fake medicine news are common and it's interesting / valuable / easy to write background on them. I would like to know if Valio has any products with a proven health benefit or if it's all a sham.

I wonder if this is a case where they do not want to tarnish Valio's reputation any more as it's such a large company?

Something's Missing Here

The court in Jämsä has given sentences in what was described for Finland as a particularly gross pedophilia case. There were six people convicted, three of whom will serve 10, 8 and 7 years in prison, eligible for parole after 3. The other three will be paroled with community service.

The felons were not named nor were specific crimes linked to specific sentences, but the YLE reports the felony conviction were (including but not limited to,) rape and sexual abuse of a child.

The defendants were unsatisfied with their sentences and are most likely going to appeal but this is about as much as YLE will provide on their website.

The only background provided was that three of the convicted were first arrested since last autumn and the trial started in the spring. One of the accused played the insanity card and the case got moved. The trial continued on Thursday and the sentences were announced today.

I really wish YLE had a little more background information on this one. It's one of the more cruel crimes and for the Finnish legal systems sentences of over 5 years are long. Yes, I personally believe the sentences should be harder, but that's not my main point here.

I had to dig back to previous reports just to find out there were several children victimized.

Since the news post is sparse but not terrible, I'm not slapping the "YLE sucks" tag on this one. Oh, and no name for the reporter. If you can read Finnish check it out here:
http://yle.fi/alueet/keski-suomi/2009/10/lapsiseksirikoksista_pitkia_tuomioita_jamsassa_1069378.html?origin=rss