Even As China Cracks Down on Food Safety, Recall is Issued for Chinese-Made Tires

From the New York Times:

By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI, June 27 — After weeks of insisting that food here is largely safe, regulators in China said Tuesday that they had recently closed 180 food plants and that inspectors had uncovered more than 23,000 food safety violations.

The nationwide crackdown, which began in December, also found that many small food makers were using industrial chemicals, dyes and other illegal ingredients in making a range of food products, everything from candy to seafood.

(T)he government has moved aggressively in recent months to enforce the nation’s food safety regulations and to crack down on fake and counterfeit foods.

But Tuesday’s announcement, which appeared on the web site of the country’s top quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, has added fuel to concerns about rampant fraud in the food industry here.

Regulators said 33,000 law enforcement officials combed the nation and turned up illegal food making dens, counterfeit bottled water, fake soy sauce, banned food additives and illegal meat processing plants.

“These are not isolated cases,” Han Yi, director of the administration’s quality control and inspection department told the state-run media.

China Daily, the nation’s English language newspaper, said industrial chemicals, including dyes, mineral oils, paraffin wax, formaldehyde and malachite green, had been found in everything from candy, pickles and biscuits to seafood.

Regulators said they also learned that sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid were being used to process shark fin and ox tendon.

These industrial chemicals are often toxic or corrosive and can be used in everything from drain cleaners, detergent and fertilizer to surfboard wax.

These types of findings have become all too common in China. For instance, in 2005, officials in south China found a company repackaging food waste and shipping it to 10 other regions. And just last week, officials said a company in Anhui province, not far from Shanghai, was selling a two-year-old rice dumpling mix as fresh, according to the state-controlled media.

Experts here say the problem is that the country’s food regulations are not being enforced and small businessmen feel they need to go to extraordinary lengths to make a profit.

Read the entire article on the New York Times.

In other news of substandard products: a New Jersey company announced a recall of hearly half a million tires made in China. But Foreign Tire Sales says it can't afford to pay for the recall and tire replacements, so it's asking the federal government for help.

The defective tires, used on light trucks and SUV’s, have been sold under the names of Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS. The problem: tire separation.

Lawyers say these tires are responsible for at least one fatal accident last year .

(Listen to Adam Davison's report broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition today.)

This tire recall follows several other recalls of Chinese-made products recently, including toothpaste containing a poisonous chemical, contaminated pet food, and Thomas the Train Engine toys decorated with lead paint.

The New York Times's David Barboza also wrote about the defective tires, and reports:

"They were supposed to include a gum strip between the steel bands that prevented them from separating. Mr. Lavigne said the gum strip cost less than a dollar a tire to install.

"But in October 2005, officials at Foreign Tire Sales became suspicious that the tires were made without the strips.

"Nearly a year later, in September 2006, Hangzhou Zhongce [the Chinese manufacturer]officials acknowledged that they had “unilaterally” decided to omit the gum strip, according to a report by Foreign Tire Sales for federal regulators."

You can read the whole article here.

RELATED: John Frisbie, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, says Chinese companies are not adhering to international safety standards. Frisbie talked about whether recent bad news has changed American business interests in China on NPR's Morning Edition today.

Listen to the interview here .

Smarty-Pants Lawyer Loses His Suit (and Trousers)

Did you hear the one about the lawyer who claimed the drycleaner lost his trousers?

He sued HIS pants off the cleaners.

To the tune of 54 million dollars.

Thank goodness he's not going to get one penny of it.

Some pants.

Some lawyer.

Wait, wait….that was a cheap shot at lawyers. Let me correct myself.

Roy L. Pearson is a judge. Who should be upholding the law, not perverting it for personal gain.

Two years ago, Pearson took several suits to his drycleaner in Washington for alterations. When he came to pick them up a couple of days later, one pair of trousers was missing.

The drycleaners said they found the missing trousers a few days later and tried to return them, but Mr Pearson insisted they were not his. Pearson complained to the Chungs, the South Korean family that owns and operates Custom Cleaners in the District of Columbia.

In his first letter, Pearson sought $1,150 for a new suit. Two lawyers and many legal bills later, the Chungs offered Pearson $3,000, then $4,600 and, finally, $12,000 to settle the case.

But that didn’t satisfy Pearson. Peek into the hundreds of pages of legal wrangling and you will find the heart of his heart of his complaint. Custom Cleaners at that time had two big signs on its walls. One said "Satisfaction Guaranteed," and the other said, "Same Day Service."

He was not satisfied. And he did not get his pants back on the same day or, for that matter, on any day.

This, he says, amounts to fraud, negligence and a scam.

Being a lawyer/judge, Pearson sued.

The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher reports: “The District's consumer protection law provides for damages of $1,500 per violation per day. Pearson started multiplying: 12 violations over 1,200 days, times three defendants” (i.e. three members of the Chung family)

Pearson’s lawsuit also included a bill for 1400 hours he says he spent preparing the case. (What kind of an incompetent lawyer needs that much time to ask for a pair of stupid pants? That said so much more about Pearson than it did about the Chungs!)

Poor baby.

The judge says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort," for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit.

But wait – there’s more! Pearson also added the cost of renting a car every weekend to enable him to drive to an alternative dry-cleaner's for the next 10 years. Why should the drycleaner pay Pearson $15,000 so he can rent a car every weekend for 10 years?

Pearson’s reason: as a result of poor service, he must find another cleaner. And because he doesn’t have a car, he says he will have to rent one to get his clothes taken care of.

Incidentally, the original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.

This idiocy came to an end today.

DC Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that Pearson is entitled to precisely: nothing. Why? He had one year to prove his claims of common law fraud with clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence. “He has not proven those claims by a preponderance of the evidence, let alone by that higher standard. Judgment therefore will be awarded to the defendants, as well as their costs." (Source: Emil Steiner of the Washington Post)

The Chungs’ lawyer, Chris Manning, said that the protracted case had transformed the family's American dream into "the American nightmare." It has cost them tens of thousands of dollars to defend this case.

In a closet of a lawyer's office in downtown Washington, there is a pair of gray wool pants, waiting to be picked up by Roy Pearson.

"We believe the pants are his," says Manning. "The tag matches his receipt."

Miscellaneous: Custom Cleaners has a legal defense fund.

A Google search shows many calls to disbar Pearson.

You can read some opinions on this case at Overlawyered. Read comments on Marc Fisher's article here.

I'll Give My Life To My Country, But Not To Protect Corporations.

On June 19, 26 year old SPC Eli Israel put himself at great personal risk.

He decided to refuse further participation in the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Eli told his commanding officer and sergeants that he will no longer be a combatant in what he calls an "illegal, unjustified war."

“I have told them that I will no longer play a ‘combat role’ in this conflict or ‘protect corporate representatives,’ and they have taken this as ‘violating a direct order.’

"Corporate representatives?" Who are these people?

Apparently, there are lots of them.

By one estimate, as many as half the Americans in Iraq are working for private contractors.

Investigative journalist Dina Rasor, co-author with Robert Bauman of "Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War" (Palgrave) was on The Diane Rehm Show on Monday, June 18th, explaining why she thinks privatization of the Iraq war undermines U-S troops and threatens national security. Eli Israel made his stand the next day.

Bauman and Rasor are sponsors of the Follow the Money Project. According to their website, the project investigates "where the money appropriated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is going -- especially money that should be going to the Troops."

Bauman and Rasor are old hands at investigating government fraud. In their new book they claim private contractors have put the lives of countless American soldiers on the line while damaging our strategic interests and our image abroad. They "give the inside story on troops forced to subsist on little food and contaminated water, on officers afraid to lodge complaints because of Halliburton's political clout, on millions of dollars in contractors' bogus claims that are funded by American taxpayers. Drawing on exclusive sources within government and the military, the authors show how money and power have conspired to undermine our fighting forces and threaten the security of our country."

Eli Israel is stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad with JVB Bravo Company, 1-149 Infantry of the Kentucky Army National Guard. You can read more on Eli at Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Awful, But still - It's Free Advertising

We all know that fashion houses will push freebies on to most any celebrity, but especially the A-listers. One red carpet picture, and sales of a dress, a purse, shoes, earrings - will skyrocket.

But what about a dreadful picture such as this?

When Lindsay Lohan partied too hard over Memorial Day weekend, some lucky papparazzi got shots of her passed out in a car and obviously made LOTS of money. But so did American Apparel, maker of the gray hooded sweatshirt she was wearing. The New York Times reports the company posted the picture its blog, "at americanapparel.net, and at least one store in Manhattan pasted the Daily News front page near a display of the $40 “flex fleece” sweatshirts, causing a run."

Eric Wilson goes on to say:

So the national obsession with celebrity culture has come to this. Even at their worst, hot young actresses can move product, and fashion companies that in the past would have shied away from provocateurs are less reticent to embrace them. And last week came this media alert from a Los Angeles dress designer: “Nicky Hilton Wearing Kate & Kass to Visit Paris in Prison.

It's official, people. Herd mentality has overtaken America. Or, maybe, a lack of mentality of any sort.

What hot products will the next infamous pictures spawn?

Let's speculate, shall we? Let's see....

A picture of Nicole Richie barfing sends sales of designer wet wipes through the roof!

Secret shots of her ex-buddy Paris behind bars spurs Banana Republic to make fashionable orange jumpsuits, which even at $200 a pop, BR cannot keep in stock!

Any suggestions?

You can read the whole article detailing this sorry scene here.

Happy Solstice!

Druids and others celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge this morning (photo: BBC)

In Wiltshire in southwestern England, about 24,000 people welcomed the sun today it rose above the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge on the longest day of the year. Dancers writhed to the sound of drums and whistles as floodlights colored the ancient pillars shades of pink and purple. Couples snuggled under plastic sheets.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar. Bonfires, maypole dances, and courtship rituals linger on in many countries as holdovers from Europe's pagan past.



In more recent years, New Age groups and others have turned to Stonehenge to celebrate the solstice, and the World Heritage Site has become a magnet for men and women seeking a spiritual experience -- or just wanting to have a good time.

Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain 80 miles southwest of London, was built between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C., although its original purpose is a mystery. Some experts say the monument's builders aligned the stones as part of their sun-worshipping culture.

Read more in this article from the Associated Press in the New York Times.

Wild Animals Without Fear.

We did not lure this chipmunk with food. It scampered up to my teenager, who was sitting on a rock at the summit of Mount Howard. As we watched, the 'munk walked right into his hand.

That was not our only close encounter with wildlife on the mountain.

We stepped off the Wallowa Lake Tramway and started exploring the 2-and-a-half miles of groomed trails atop Mount Howard. There were still some patches of snow defying the June sun.

Barely a hundred yards away from the tram terminal, we noticed little burrows in the grass, and all of a sudden a little creature popped out of one. Quite unafraid, it scampered toward us.

Of course the kids let out squeals of delight. My slow camera missed the next shot, of the creature crawling over my son’s shoe! We were really astounded at their boldness.As there were so many burrows, I initially thought this was a prairie dog town. But on closer inspection, these were ground squirrels.

Reluctantly, we left the burrow area and followed the trail to take in the sweeping views of the Wallowas and Snake River areas - rugged canyons, stark cliffs, snowy peaks.



As we went by some sparse patches of trees, the sound of chittering caught our attention. The chipmunks were out, and spring was clearly on their minds as males chased little females all over the place.

Some of the critters had their cheeks fully puffed with food! It was absolutely enchanting the way they ventured to the trail, completely without fear.

At the mountain overlook, we sat down to take in the view, and got to see just how unfraid the chipmunks were.



There were other distractions on Mount Howard. Big nutcrackers flew about, too fast for my clumsy efforts with the camera.

And of course, wildflowers. They were much smaller than those at lower elevations. Could these little white blossoms be the famed edelweiss, I wondered?

Then, there was this little cultural observation to round out our little walk before we took the tram back down to our car.

Out of Joseph and Up into the Clouds.

As we drove out of the lovely town of Joseph toward Wallowa Lake, we stopped to see the Monument of Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph the Elder . Originally buried in the nearby town of Wallowa, his remains were moved to this spot in 1926.


Old Chief Joseph is not as well known as his son and namesake, whose image is well known to many Americans, especially in the Northwest.

Born Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (“Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain”) in 1840, Joseph the Younger led the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce “during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Indians to a reservation in Idaho. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.” (More from this Wikipedia article)

This is Joseph Canyon, one of the winter homes of the Nez Perce. It’s believed Chief Joseph was born in a cave here.



We drove by the pristine morainal lake as we headed for the Wallowa Lake Tramway, which would take us on a very steep 4000-foot climb to the top of Mount Howard.

The ride costs $20 for adults, and takes 15 minutes to get up to the 8150-foot summit.

I have a few phobias, and of course, one of them is for heights. I clung tightly to the support pole in the middle of the gondola and did my best to keep my eight-year old from dashing from side to side. I had limited success as his enthusiasm and exuberance fueled his movements. The the little vestibule rocked, and sent me into palpitations. At that moment, I decided to NEVER get on a ski lift.

My teenage son, who adores skiing, rode with my daughter and her friend in a separate gondola. Far more composed than me, he took this picture of the lake through the slightly scratched windshield. (Still a pretty good shot, though!)

Taking in the Wallowa Magic.

View of the Wallowa Mountains from the summit of Mount Howard

Last week, my children and I took a short trip to the breathtaking Wallowa Lake and Mountains of northeastern Oregon. It's about a three-hour drive south (and a little bit east) of Moscow - a scenic drive that took us up and down through many hairpin turns.

We began our trip in Idaho, crossed the Snake River into Washington state, where we proceeded south through Asotin, and the little hamlet of Anatone, where a 4-H sign announces the area's statistics.


Fine with me - when I go somewhere to get away, I'd much rather not deal with crowds of people!


True, few people live along that stretch. But what it lacks in population, it compensates with majestic scenery: the Snake River, Hells Canyon, the Wallowa Whitman National Forest. There were lots of oohs and aahs and "look at that!"-s emanating from our car.





Through the entire drive, were all sorts of wildflowers. Blue, yellow, purple, white, pink and orange. Most were at their peak.

It was also a great opportunity to spot wildlife - lots of deer and even a pair of wild turkeys.



We spent the night in lovely Enterprise. This whole area is called the "Switzerland of Oregon," for good reason.


Part of the town was barricaded. Apparently, early that morning a big fire destroyed an apartment building that was nearly a century old.

Northwest Public Radio was coming in strong on our translator at 100.9FM. It never ceases to amaze me how our signal spreads out so far from our Pullman studios, sometimes into pretty remote areas.

Next morning, we headed out on the road to Wallowa Lake, which took us through one of Oregon's most picturesque towns, Joseph.

Named for Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph, this is a very artistic town. Its renowned foundry, Valley Bronze of Oregon, casts sculptures of all sizes. In fact, the town is lined with full-size bronze sculptures of animals and people, such as this one.

This was situated in a little square, but most of the sculptures line the main street and are thus set against a magnificent backdrop of snow-capped mountains. (Sorry, I don't have any of those to share at this time - not without forcing you to view family vacation pictures, at any rate!)

After strolling through this charming town, we went on to Wallowa Lake, and took the tram on a steep four thousand-foot climb up to the summit of Mount Howard.

We'll pick up that part of our trip in the next post.

And Now, For Something Completely Different!

My current favorite CD is "Betcha Bottom Dollar" by the Puppini Sisters, a British trio that sings in the Big Band style of the 1940s. I first heard about them on NPR's Morning Edition in May (here's the NPR interview) singing their big-band style version of the Gloria Gaynor disco hit (and anthem!) "I Will Survive."

Watch the Puppini Sisters performing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" here:

Death Sentence for China's Head of Food and Drug Safety

The BBC reports on a drastic solution to China's serious problem with food and drug safety, with the ultimate penalty for the director of their version of the FDA.

"Zheng Xiaoyu used to be one of the most trusted men in China. He was in charge of making sure his country's food and drugs did not kill anyone.

"But, on Tuesday morning in Beijing, a court found that he had failed - badly. He was found guilty of accepting bribes and of lowering safety standards.

"For his failure, he will be shot dead."

Zheng was in charge of the food and drug administration from its creation in 1998 to the time he was fired in 2005. But it was in 2002 that he saw his power rise dramatically: that's when the the government required all drugs be approved by the agency. With the new ribbon of red tape, the approval of new drugs and food products became very slow. Some manufacturers decided to expedite the process with bribes for officials, including Zheng.

The Associated Press reports (read it on MSNBC China’s Health Ministry found almost 34,000 food-related illnesses in 2005. "According to The Outlook Weekly, a magazine published by the Chinese government’s news agency, a survey by the quality inspection administration found that a third of China’s 450,000 food production companies had no licenses. Also, 60 percent of the total did not conduct safety tests or have the capability to do so."

Zheng was sentenced on May 29, 2007.

The BBC article goes on to say:

"China has promised to get rid of its supply of fake and contaminated drugs. It carries out periodic raids, and calls in cameras to take pictures of its hauls. But the outside world is sceptical. This year alone, there have been reports of contaminated Chinese drugs ending up in Panama, the Dominican Republic, and the United States.

"The Chinese Communist Party now realises it has a huge problem - fake drugs made in [their] country kill people."

But will the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu be enough to scare counterfeiters away from huge profits?

Counterfeit Blood Protein Revealed in China

Does counterfeiting know no bounds?

From the BBC:

"Chinese investigators say nearly 60 hospitals and pharmacies in north-eastern China have been using fake blood protein in patients' drips.

"Albumin, or plasma protein, is used to treat patients suffering from shock and burns and during open-heart surgery.

"Experts suggest that the fake product could be life-threatening for those already in a serious condition.

"The scandal is the latest to expose weaknesses in China's regulation of food and drug standards.

"The food and drug administration in the north-eastern state of Jilin found 18 hospitals and more than 30 pharmacies sold or were selling false batches of the albumin.

"'There was no element of protein, so it could not perform its intended function,' said the administration's deputy director, Xu Fei.

"'These were out-and-out fakes,' he added.

"Officials did not say whether anyone had died or fallen ill through using the false protein, though one Chinese newspaper said it had led to one death.

"China Central Television cited an official saying those making the false albumin were making a 300% profit, assisted by shortages of the genuine product.

"The administration said its investigations had 'effectively cleaned up the market'.

You can read the whole article on the BBC website.

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Here are links to my earlier blog entries on the subject of China's counterfeit practices in food and medical products:

Is ANYTHING safe from China these days?

Food Safety: So Much More Than E. coli

Another Tale of Food Safety Challenges in China

Deadly Industrial Chemicals from China Landing Up Cough Syrup and Other Products

Trail to Chinese Food Producers Turns Cold

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Just a few more pics of imitations.

Why counterfeit a few purses when you can try and copy the whole store?


All four pictures on this post are on www.hemmy.net, which shows more Chinese fakes. The store above is in China. I imagine that if most of the population is not accustomed to reading English often, they could mistake the store name for the real Prada.

Same principles at work in the next few examples:






I've had a lot of fun looking up counterfeits on the web!

Tip Your (Knockoff) Hat to Imitations and Counterfeits!

The problem of counterfeit goods has been turned into a fashion statement by the Dutch/Brazilian designer Bea Correa. She first drew attention for her knockoff Louis Vuitton purses with the word 'FAKE' stenciled across them. Correa said she was surprised at the enthusiastic public response - even people who already owned the real thing wanted one. (Source)). If you want one of these hot items, you'll have to make a fake, as they're no longer available. (Just buy a knockoff LV and stencil "FAKE" on it!)

Correa's next big statement was a line of T-shirts called Fakewear.



Then again - it's not entirely clear WHAT exactly, is being declared as fake!



Want to see more imitations? You're in luck. People are more interested in this than I realized!

Germany has the Museum Plagiarius in the city of Solingen. (be sure to check out the slideshow). Proves it's not just the Chinese who pull imitations.

In fact, a 1992 article in the International Herald Tribune about the Museo del falso in Salerno, Italy, makes it clear that all the Chinese practices we've heard about in recent times may have originated in Europe!

Is this the ultimate irony - Chinese imitating European imitations?

Thailand is home to the Tilleke and Gibbins Museum of Counterfeit Goods established in 1989. Some of the pictures of the fakes are incredible!

And in Paris, visit the Museum of the Counterfeit.

And finally, make sure you check out a photolog tracing a fried chicken fakery gone wild in New York City: Satan's Laundromat. It's unreal! (Sorry. I couldn't resist it.) When you're done with that, go to another post on the same photolog for Colonel Sanders wannabes.

It's not just China faking stuff.

Seen in Irbil, Iraq (Source):



And this was in Siem Reap, Cambodia (Source):

More Counterfeiting Tales from China

Y'all know those fake Prada and Fendi goods are from China, right? Those Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags and purses, those Rolexes sold off street tables in many big cities - all from the Middle Kingdom, no?

Counterfeiting is big business there. But designer goods are just the tip of the iceberg. Think pirated DVDs and CD - all the way up to laptops and cellphones.

In these cases, manufacturers and those who hold the patents are the main losers. But Chinese counterfeiting has expanded into areas that cause harm, and even death. Fake brake pads that fail in an emergency. Fake formula with barely any protein - babies fed this stuff were seriously malnourished, and some died. (See this earlier post) Cheap diethylene glycol sold under the guise of glycerin syrup for use in cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs - these caused permanent damage to some people and killed others. (Read this earlier post).

At the heart of this massive problem is this question: why are these fraudulent practices so widespread in China, and why aren't their authorities getting it under control?

The New York Times tackles that issue in the article, When Fakery Turns Fatal.

According to the story, "cutting corners or producing fake goods is not just a legacy of China’s initial rush toward the free market three decades ago but still woven into the fabric of the nation’s thriving industrial economy. It is driven by entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of a weak legal system, lax regulations and a business culture where bribery and corruption are rampant."

After living in deprivation under decades of Communism, are some Chinese willing to go to any lengths to turn a bigger profit? Seems that way, doesn't it?

"For decades," writes David Barboza, "small entrepreneurs have started out counterfeiting in emerging industries in China, seeking an early advantage and their first pot of gold.

"Often, they try to get around regulations, or simply believe small-time cheating that involves adding cheap substitutes or low-grade ingredients will not cause much harm.

Barboza notes:

"Dozens of Chinese cities have risen to prominence over the last two decades by first specializing in fake goods, like Wenzhou, which was once known for selling counterfeit Procter & Gamble products, and Kaihua in Zhejiang province, which specialized in fake Philips light bulbs."

One of those counterfeiting capitals is Wudi, home of the company that sold melamine-contaminated wheat gluten to American pet food manufacturers. Some pets fed with those products were sickened, and some died.

Did the buyers of the contaminated wheat gluten and other products visit the manufacturing plant to observe production practices and note their standards? No - and if they had tried, they might have found ramshackle outbuildings or shuttered facilities instead of the modern factories pictured on these companies' websites.

As Barboza says, corruption - at many levels of Chinese government - only serves to make the deception easier.

The wheat gluten company, Binzhou Futian, "shared a building with the county government’s cereal and grains bureau, an indication of its close ties to the government. "Futian didn’t have any actual factory here,” said a guard who works at the Binzhou headquarters. “They hung a banner here because they wanted to look good in front of visitors. They had countless suppliers from the countryside.”

Wow.

Just how far can this fraud go?

"Last year....pirates were caught faking an entire company, setting up a “branch” of the NEC Corporation of Japan, including 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan."

It's a scary thought. These guys could easily fake a "Made in the USA" label if they wish, if they haven't done it already.

Here again, is the NY Times story.

NPR's Louisa Lim reported last year that Chinese authorities tried to crack down on counterfeiter, but that failed to stem the tide of knockoffs.

Read my post, Is ANYTHING from China Safe These Days? (And how do we know what's from China, anyway?)

Want to flaunt a purse with a Coach logo at a fraction of the price? Here's a story on the hidden costs of buying counterfeit goods.

How Barack Obama Plays Basketball.

What can we learn about the Illinois Senator and Presidential hopeful from his dribbles and jump shots, and why would anyone be interested?

Could it give us some clues into how he plays in the political arena?

Plato said one can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation.

The Senator's wife Michelle operated on that. During their dating days, she enlisted her brother's help, and got him to take her new boyfriend out on the court, to make sure he was not the type to hog the ball or call constant fouls.

Clever woman! I certainly think the way a person plays - whether basketball or Monopoly - can reveal a lot about their character.

The New York Times examines this aspect of the political rock star today.

Jodi Kantor writes:

"Barack Obama is a wily player of pickup basketball, the version of the game with unspoken rules, no referee and lots of elbows. He has been playing since adolescence, on cracked-asphalt playgrounds and at exclusive health clubs, developing a quick offensive style, a left-handed jump shot and relationships that have extended into the political arena."

"On the court, Mr. Obama is confident, even a bit boastful.

“If he would hit a couple buckets, he would let you know about it,” said Alexi Giannoulias, who played in the late 1990s with Mr. Obama at the East Bank Club, a luxurious spot in downtown Chicago.

He is gentleman enough to call fouls on himself: Steven Donziger, a law school classmate, has heard Mr. Obama mutter, “my bad,” tossing the other team the ball.

The article examines how basketball initially was a way for the teenage Obama to find a place in the black community, but it grew into something else:

"Now, Mr. Obama’s friends say, basketball has been his escape from the sport of politics, but also a purer version of it, with no decorous speeches, no careful consensus — just unrestrained competition.

“He can be himself, it’s a safe haven, he can let his competitive juices flow and tease his buddies,” Mr. Nesbitt said. “It’s just a relaxing respite from the every-moment and every-word scrutinization that he gets.”

Read the full article here.

There was some evidence of that tough player a couple of weeks ago as Obama addressed a group of people in Trenton, NJ, that so far has not warmed to him: blue collar and union members. Asked what he would do about Wal-Mart if elected president. He wouldn't shop there, he declared, and the crowd was quite pleased. (Obama didn't say this in Trenton, but his wife also stepped down from the board of a company that supplies the retail giant.)

Then Obama did something almost no presidential hopeful would do - he said something clearly counter to the values of his audience. He had some praise for Wal-Mart, classic target of labor movements: he said the company's business model for managing its inventory efficiently is something “we should admire.”

I find it admirable in this day and age where politicians have a different (or at least, customized) message for each of their varied audiences. And it sounds as if even those who didn't like his good words for Wal-Mart found that gutsy and somewhat appealing.

You can hear Obama's comments, audience response, and more on his efforts to court labor, in this NPR piece that aired on Wednesday.

Craving Peace? Move to Norway, Avoid Iraq.

The first study of its kind ranks Norway the most peaceful country, and Iraq the least. (complete rankings.)

The Global Peace Index surveyed 121 countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe. The Economist Intelligence Unit (the country intelligence division of The Economist Group that publishes The Economist newspaper) measured countries' peacefulness based on 24 indicators- including ease of access to "weapons of minor destruction" (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.

After compiling the Index, the researchers examined it for patterns in order to identify the "drivers" that make for peaceful societies. They found that peaceful countries often shared high levels of democracy and transparency of government, education and material well-being. (Source)

The Global Peace Index's main findings:

• Peace is correlated to indicators such as income, schooling and the level of regional integration


• Peaceful countries often shared high levels of transparency of government and low corruption


• Small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs are most likely to get a higher ranking

And here now are the top ten most peaceful countries in the world:

• 1: Norway


• 2: New Zealand


• 3: Denmark


• 4: Ireland


• 5: Japan


• 6: Finland


• 7: Sweden


• 8: Canada


• 9: Portugal


• 10: Austria

The GPI states that in Norway "there is no internal conflict and involvement in external conflicts is limited to peacekeeping roles. Relations between Norway and its neighbouring Scandinavian countries, with which it shares a strong cultural and linguistic heritage, are very good; indeed, close co-operation with the other Nordic countries is a cornerstone of Norway's foreign policy. The rate of violent crime is very low, there is a strong level of respect for human rights, the political scene is stable and violent demonstrations are highly unlikely to occur, all of which indicate a harmonious society."

Moving on now to the bottom of the list:

• 112: Angola


• 113: Cote d'Ivoire


• 114: Lebanon


• 115: Pakistan


• 116: Colombia


• 117: Nigeria


• 118: Russia


• 119: Israel


• 120: Sudan


• 121: Iraq

And once again, here is the complete list of rankings.

It's worth noting that Afghanistan is not included in the list of 121.

Where do we stand in all this?

The United States is number 96, right behind Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Yemen. The ranking was brought down by engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels of incarceration and homicide. The U.S.'s rank also suffered due to the large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status as one of the world's military-diplomatic powers."

Our neighbors fared better: Canada is ranked eighth, Mexico is 79.

You can read more about the Global Peace Index in this BBC article.

Coincidentally (or not?) the BBC today also has an article that reports people in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran's nuclear programme. Read it here.

Public Radio Visitor.

As I left work on Memorial Day, this is what I saw right outside our building, the Murrow Communications Center at WSU in Pullman.



(The brick building in the picture is Thompson Hall, directly across the street from Murrow.)

I've seen this little fellow occasionally when I arrive at work in the pre-dawn hours. Reason I think it's the same one is that he's somewhat unafraid of humans, and let me get quite close. He's not missing an ear - he'd dropped one and had been scratching it.



From now on, I shall address this little critter as Edward, for Mr. Murrow.

Battered by the Right, then the Left, Cindy Sheehan Quits.

After her son was killed in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan camped outside President Bush's home in Crawford for most of a long hot Texas summer, demanding he talk to her about son Casey's death.

Bush went out of his way to avoid her, but Sheehan's long wait in 2005 turned her one of the most prominent figures of the anti-war movement, and a frequent target for supporters of the war. Among the names they hurled at her: "attention whore."

CNN reports:

"...in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.

The 1,200-word letter is titled, Good Riddance Attention Whore.

Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."

"I have tried ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."

Noting some numbers: 980 U.S. servicemen and women died in the last twelve months, the between Memorial Day observances of 2006 and 2007. (Source) As for American Idol, 29.5 MILLION people tuned in for the recent finale episode. (Source)

This has to be disheartening for the war's strongest opponents. Like Sheehan, many had placed their hopes in the new Democratic majority in Congress to rein in the Bush Administration. But after weeks of hot air and bluster and veto threats from Bush, the Dems obliged him and dropped a troop withdrawal timeline from the war spending bill.

Sheehan says she's not a partisan when it comes to opposing the war, and levels criticism at the left and Democrats:

"I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?

"However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong."

Sheehan's right about Americans distracted by things other than the continuing sacrifice of troops and the families who struggle and worry. I really expected a lot more attention to them on this Memorial Day, but it was strangely muted. Some have argued that it's because Americans were not asked to make personal sacrificies to the war effort that has them thus disengaged.

The personal toll on Sheehan was heavy. She says "her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.

"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost."

Read the CNN report here, and Sheehan's diary entry at Daily Kos here.

Guest Commentary: Roger Lynn, Pastor, United Church of Moscow.

Roger Lynn has been pastor of the United Church of Moscow for the last 12 years. He lives about a mile north of the Latah County Courthouse. Like many of his neighbors, Roger was awakened on the night of Saturday, May 19th, by the sounds which we would come to know the next day, was gunfire issued by Jason Hamilton. More than 125 rounds discharged, and four people dead.

Roger sent in this commentary:

I came awake to what I thought was the sound of someone knocking on our door, desperate to be let in. The next morning I learned that the "knocking" had actually been the first burst of weapon fire at the Court House. And then the thought occurred to me that it had, in fact, been someone desperate to be let in.

He had chosen a particularly tragic and disastrous way of expressing his pain, but pain it most certainly was. And now we, as individuals, as a community, as a nation, as the human race, are left with the challenge of picking up the pieces of our broken world and moving on from here. We are left with the challenge of how to respond to the desperate knocking that persistently disturbs our living. And we have choices in how we will do that.

In his farewell address to the Hebrew people as they prepared to enter the "Promised Land," Moses says, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19)

As a person of faith it is my strong conviction that God's desire for all of us is full, rich, abundant living which is defined by qualities such as peace, compassion, health and connection.

The path which leads to such life can be difficult to find, particularly since we have frequently wandered so far afield. And, I believe, it is possible to find our way back to the path.

It is possible to remember who we truly are, way down deep in the core of our being. If we will pay attention to the deep longings of our hearts, if we will listen for the quiet whispers of the Sacred Presence, if we will open ourselves to the promptings of the Spirit, we will discover the path to healing and wholeness.

It is a journey that will require the very best of who we are. It will require all our energy and commitment. And it is a journey which we must make together, with no one left behind. We absolutely must begin and end with the firm conviction that every life is sacred, every person is of immeasurable worth, every soul is intrinsically linked to us.

We cannot meet these challenges alone. Together, with each other and with God, there is nothing we cannot do. I do not know all of what must be done to even begin moving us towards life and away from death, and I know that the challenge is overwhelming in its enormity.

I also know that we must begin.

We must begin to transform the personal, institutional, cultural, societal systems which perpetuate our brokenness -- the systems that keep people in poverty, deny them access to health care, devalue and dehumanize them, and so much more. We must begin to reclaim our humanity and the humanity of every person on the planet.

"Choose life," Moses said, "so that you and your descendants may live."

In the darkness of these days in which we find ourselves, as we have wrapped our arms around each other, wept together and reached out in love and support to those around us, we have, indeed, already begun to choose life.

May the ripples of that choice spread and help to heal the world.

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Roger Lynn's commentary will air Friday afternoon on Northwest Public Radio.

You can also listen to it here.

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