Whose corruption is it?
National and local politicians are blaming each other for the problem of corruption in Mexico.
Inmate massacre highlights Mexico jail corruptionNine guards have confessed to helping Zetas drug gangsters escape from prison before other Zetas slaughtered 44 rival inmates, a state official said late Monday, underlining the enormous corruption inside Mexico's overcrowded, underfunded prisons…
The massacre in this northern state was one of the worst prison killings in Mexico in at least a quarter-century and exposed another weak institution that President Felipe Calderon is relying on to fight his drug war…
An increase in organized crime, extortion, drug trafficking and kidnapping has swelled Mexico's prison population almost 50 percent since 2000. But the government has built no new federal prisons since Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels when he took office in late 2006, leaving existing jails overcrowded…
Of the 47,000 federal inmates in the country, about 29,000 are held in state prisons. That has drawn complaints from Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina and other state governors, who say their jails aren't equipped to hold members of powerful and highly organized drug cartels.
The federal government counters that none of the escapes or mass killings have occurred at federal lockups, and it cites corruption on the state level, not overcrowding, as the main cause of the deaths and escapes…
Prison employees say guards are underpaid, making them more likely to take bribes. And even honest guards are vulnerable to coercion: Many live in neighborhoods where street gangs and drug cartels are active, making it easy to target their families with threats.
The same can be said for Mexico's municipal police forces, another weak flank in Calderon's attack on organized crime. Thousands of local officers - often, entire forces at a time - have been fired, detained or placed under investigation for aiding drug gangs…
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Labels: China economics politics, corruption, federalism, Mexico
This is not the entertainment you want
Chinese President Hu warns his country about the phony attractions of the west and the government cuts popular programming on satellite television. Is this a reversion to the Maoist xenophobia?
China campaign cuts entertainment TV by two-thirdsSatellite broadcasters in China have cut entertainment TV by two-thirds following a government campaign, state news agency Xinhua has reported.
An order by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) to curb ''excessive entertainment'' came into effect on 1 January…
The news came as the president warned of the influence of Western culture.
In the piece published in a Communist Party magazine, President Hu Jintao also urged efforts to boost the country's own soft power, said Xinhua…
"Satellite channels have started to broadcast programmes that promote traditional virtues and socialist core values," SARFT said in a statement.
Talent shows and reality TV are among the biggest casualties of the cuts. The list of restricted programmes also included talk shows and emotional stories that were deemed to be of "low taste", said the Xinhua news report…
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entries are indexed.
The First Edition of What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools is now available from the publisher
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Labels: China, China economics politics, political culture
Comparative oil production
Alan Carter wrote from the UK to recommend this article from the
Financial Times of London. The theme could become the focus of a comparative study, even for AP classes that examine Nigeria, Mexico, Russia, and Iran -- all major oil producers.
Crude realitiesBy Matthew Green
Published: August 28 2008 03:00
"The world needs Africa's oil, but the stuff has a habit of ruining the places that produce it. From the civil war battlefields of southern Sudan to the slums of Angola and the swamps of the Niger Delta, the discovery of crude has done little to improve local lives. Often, it has destroyed them.
"Yet a fisherman who makes his livelihood in Africa's newest oil province - a deep-water field off Ghana's Atlantic coast - can hardly wait for it to start flowing. 'With God's help, I'll be a rich man,' says Joseph Cudjoe, one of a chain of young men hauling a net into a brightly painted longboat beached at the village of Axim. 'If the oil is coming, we'll get a lot of money, just like the Saudis.'
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Labels: China economics politics, environment, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia
Black or white cats; socialist or capitalist economies
February 19 is the anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's death.
Xinhua used the occasion to remind readers of his legacy.
China stays on path of reform, opening-up in post-Deng era"When most Chinese were fearful even to mention the term 'market economy', the late leader Deng vigorously preached its adoption during his historic 1992 inspection tour to economic enclaves in south China.
"'Practice of a planned economy is not equivalent to socialism because there is also planning under capitalism; Practice of a market economy is not equivalent to capitalism because there are also markets under socialism.' This is one of his most oft-repeated quotes...
"At its 16th National Congress held in Beijing in 2002, the CPC wrote the theory of 'Three Represents' into the party constitution. The theory says that as a ruling party, the CPC will always represent the development trends of advanced productive forces, the orientations of advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people of China...
"Statistics showed that by September last year, China's private sector accounted for 65 percent of national GDP (gross domestic product), and the figure would reach three quarters in just five years..."
Labels: China economics politics
