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West Bank Businesses Seek Growth Amid Uncertainty

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 22 2013

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A worker chips away at Jerusalem stone, likely destined for a building facade somewhere in the world. Stone and marble is a big business in Palestinian towns near Bethlehem. Quarries are in Israeli-controlled areas and access can be a challenge.

Emily Harris/NPR

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heads back to Israel and the West Bank Thursday for more talks on restarting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. When he was there last month, he walked away with at least one agreement – to improve the West Bank economy. Here’s how he put it as he left Israel:

“We agreed among us – President Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and ourselves – that we are going to engage in new efforts, very specific efforts, to promote economic development and to remove some of the bottlenecks and barriers that exist with respect to commerce in the West Bank, to move very rapidly towards increased business expansion and private sector investment in the West Bank.”

This wasn’t designed to replace the political track, Kerry emphasized, but complement it.

No more details have been publicized. But if Kerry really can succeed in removing “bottlenecks and barriers,” some businesspeople in the West Bank say that might go further than cash.

Take stone-cutting. So-called Jerusalem stone is famous around the world. Both Israeli and Palestinian companies extract and export it. But West Bank quarries are in an area where Israel, as agreed in the Olso Accords, controls permits for any activity on the land.

Ahmed Thwabta, who owns a stone factory in Beit Fajar, by Bethlehem, says sometimes Israeli soldiers confiscate his workers’ tools. Sometimes they deny access to the mine.

“We work according to the Israeli mood,” he says. “If the political situation is good, then we are OK. If the political situation is bad, then they come and pick on us and fine us.”

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Rami El-Zogheir, on right, general manager of Hebron’s Golf Horse Footwear, says he’s ready to expand into other Arab markets. All he needs, he says, are assurances the political situation will at least stay the same, if not improve.

Emily Harris/NPR

That unpredictability hampers all kinds of businesses. Farmers wanting to sell their produce in Jerusalem can’t always be sure a crossing will be open in time to keep strawberries, for example, from spoiling. Shoemakers can’t guarantee shipments. Even the small-but-growing IT sector faces obstacles.

“For example, Palestine cannot have 3G or 4G because the Israeli authorities are preventing them from accessing these frequencies,” says Saed Nashef, a Palestinian-American venture capitalist running a fund with nearly $30 million to invest in Palestinian tech companies.

He also says Israel could make it much easier for people from abroad to come work here.

“It’s difficult to bring an expert or senior-level manager to hire in a startup,” he said.

Israel emphasizes any obstacles it puts in place are for security.

“I know that the crossing point are an obstacle,” says Col. Grisha Yakubovich, the head of the Civil Coordination Department of COGAT – the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.

COGAT oversees a lot – including mining permits, commercial crossings, and travel permits for Palestinian workers seeking employment in Israel or in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Yakubovich repeats two points frequently: First, that Israel puts security first. He mentions a 2004 attack on an Israeli port after two suicide bombers hid in a commercial container to leave the West Bank. Second, that COGAT is working to support the Palestinian Authority. Yakubovich says Israel can’t find takers to fill the all the permits allowed for Palestinians to work in Israel.

Given logistical obstacles, high unemployment and no clear light at the end of the political tunnel, the International Monetary Fund is predicting that growth in Palestinian areas will drop by half over the next three years. The head of the IMF office here, Udo Kock, says another major problem is that the Palestinian Authority depends on international donors for a quarter of its budget. Recently, those contributions have been inconsistent, which means the PA can’t pay its bills.

“There are three main elements that are needed to get the private sector going,” Kock says. “One is a relaxation of restrictions – broad based, all sectors. This is very important. Second is for donors to continue to provide assistance, and to do it in a predictable way. And there is a responsibility on the Palestinian side of course. The PA has to start working on reforms.”

Rami El-Zogheir says all he needs are assurances that the political situation will at least stay the same, if not improve. His company makes high-end shoes by hand and business has been booming; during the past three years of relative calm here Golf Horse Footwear has tripled the number of pairs it makes.

“I would like to invest more money,” Zogheir says. “And I have a good chance to expand into other Arab markets. But I can’t guarantee the situation here.”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/21/185809432/west-bank-businesses-seek-growth-amid-uncertainty?ft=1&f=1004

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Two Key Candidates Barred From Seeking Iran’s Presidency

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 22 2013

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Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s candidacy for the country’s presidency was rejected Tuesday by the powerful Guardian Council. He’s seen here on May 11 registering his candidacy for the June 14 election.

Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Iran’s powerful Guardian Council has disqualified two key candidates — a former president and a top aide to the current president — from running in the June 14 presidential election.

The Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, approved eight names Tuesday but left out former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was handpicked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mashaei said he would appeal the decision to the country’s supreme leader; Rafsanjani did not comment.

The Associated Press has compiled a list of the eight approved candidates and their backgrounds. The two big names on the list are Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, who assumes the mantle of favorite, and former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Velayati. Al-Jazeera reports:

“There have been wide speculations that Mashaei would be excluded from the list. But not Rafsanjani, a two-term president and current head of the Expediency Council, a position appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.

“Their exclusion from the June 14 presidential ballot gives establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favour with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles.

“It also pushes moderate and opposition voices further to the margins as Iran’s leadership faces critical challenges such as international sanctions and talks with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.”

As NPR’s Peter Kenyon reported last week, nearly 700 hopefuls had thrown their names into the race.

“Although not exactly a free-for-all, analysts say, there’s a clear sense that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has failed to unify the political elite behind a single establishment candidate, Peter reported. “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s embattled president, is barred from running for a third consecutive term — though he continues to try to influence the field, throwing his weight behind his own handpicked candidate.”

The Guardian Council also rejected the candidacies of all female candidates — about 30 in number.

The AP reports:

“Just one approved candidate, Mohammad Reza Aref, might draw some moderate appeal because of his role as vice president under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

“The rest of the choices, at the very least, would create a possibly seamless front between the ruling clerics and presidency after years of political turmoil under Ahmadinejad, who tried to challenge the theocracy’s vast powers to make all major decisions and set key policies. Iran’s presidency, meanwhile, is expected to convey the ruling clerics’ views on the world stage and not set its own diplomatic agenda.”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/21/185865203/two-key-candidates-barred-from-seeking-irans-presidency?ft=1&f=1004

Why Apple (And Lots Of Other Companies) Wound Up In Ireland

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 22 2013

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Andy Wong/AP

Apple was criticized in a Senate hearing Tuesday for using a complex accounting to minimize the corporate taxes it pays. One key piece of the company’s tax strategy: It funnels lots of its profits through subsidiaries in Ireland.

Offering low corporate tax rates has been a fundamental part of Ireland’s economic strategy for decades — a way to get foreign companies to set up operations in the country.

In yesterday’s Senate hearing, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned that Apple has had a subsidiary in Ireland since 1980, when the country was recruiting international tech companies and offering tax deals.

As it happens, the idea of using taxes to lure foreign companies goes back even further than tha, according to Frank Barry, an Irish economist who’s studied the country’s tax history.

After the war, the Irish government used rebuilding funds provided by the U.S. government to, among other things, hire U.S. consultants, Barry says. The consultants produced a 100-page report that was a broad look at the Irish economy. (First line: “In the Irish economy, cattle is king.”)

On one page, the report noted that Puerto Rico — another small island economy — had done well by lowering its corporate tax rate, which attracted multinational corporations.

“The U.S. consultants downplayed it,” Barry says. “But our bureaucrats here spotted it and said, ‘This has the makings of a very good idea.’”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/05/21/185896057/why-apple-and-lots-of-other-companies-wound-up-in-ireland?ft=1&f=1004

An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 21 2013

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A pilgrim walks the Way of St. James outside Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, on July 21, 2010. The ancient religious pilgrimage is also attracting the nonreligious these days.

Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images

A pilgrim walks the Way of St. James outside Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, on July 21, 2010. The ancient religious pilgrimage is also attracting the nonreligious these days.

Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images

A 1,200-year old European pilgrimage route is experiencing a revival. Last year alone, some 200,000 followed in the footsteps of their medieval forebears on the Way of St. James, making their way some 750 miles from Paris across France to the Spanish coastal city of Santiago de Compostela, and the relics of the eponymous apostle.

But now, what was once a strictly religious affair has become a cultural and social phenomenon that attracts the nonreligious as well. The journey was captured in The Way, a 2010 film made by father-and-son duo Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.

A pilgrim prays before a crucifix in Somport, France, along the Way of St. James. Last year, nearly 200,000 pilgrims walked the journey.

Xurxo Lobato/Cover/Getty Images

For centuries, pilgrims crossed France into Spain on one of four major routes, depending on whether they were coming from the north, east or south from Italy. American writer David Downie began his recent pilgrimage as many did in medieval times, at the Tour St. Jacques in downtown Paris.

“This was where thousands and thousands of pilgrims would meet and start off to walk all the way down to Spain to Santiago de Compostela,” Downie says. “This was like ‘Pilgrimage Central’ in Paris.”

Downie has just written a book about his 3-month trek entitled Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. In the past, he says, pilgrims went to St. Jacques de Compostelle, as it is known in French, to pray for their sins or for others. The rich even hired pilgrims to carry messages for them.

As we make our way across Paris along the traditional pilgrims’ route on ancient Roman roads, we have to dodge a lot of traffic. But Downie assures me pilgrims of yore had it much harder.

“I think it’s difficult for us to imagine just how dangerous it was, how horrible. Think of the footwear they had. Think of the fact that there was often nowhere to get clean water, or anywhere to eat,” Downie says. “There were brigands and murderers lurking. A lot of these people who went off on a pilgrimage had no idea whether they’d make it back.”

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela started in the 9th century when the martyred St. James’ bones are said to have arrived in a boat to the rocky Galician coast; it fell out of fashion around the time of the French revolution. It began to regain popularity in the 1960s when a French university scholar wrote about it.

Over the past decades its popularity has soared. In 1982 there were 120 pilgrims. Last year there were nearly 200,000 pilgrims, mostly from Europe.

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“I always wanted to do this pilgrimage for the adventure and spiritual growth,” says Pascal Begin, a 55-year-old French parish priest. “But whether you’re religious or not, everyone is looking for simplicity and getting to know themselves and meeting others. It’s just human.”

Eleanor Beardsley/NPR

The Burgundy town of Vezelay, whose church is said to hold Mary Magdalene’s bones, is on another French pilgrimage route. Buried in the cobbled streets are brass plaques of scallops, the symbol of St. James.

Paris shopkeeper Catherine Sauger wears a scallop shell on her backpack. She’s doing a 2-week leg of the route and will pick it back up again on her August vacation.

She says it’s a wonderful way to discover the gastronomy and regions of France. And walking on a pilgrimage, she says, gives you strength at every level.

For many Catholics, the pilgrimage to Compostela is a profound religious experience. But many pilgrims do it for nonreligious reasons, and the walk to Compostela has morphed into a social and cultural phenomenon. Pilgrims stay in special hostels and many carry cards that are stamped to show their progress along the route.

Leaving Vezelay, I spot a lone backpacker on a busy road.

Pascal Begin, a 55-year-old parish priest, has taken off his shoes and socks to reveal bandages all over his feet — and he’s only been walking for a day.

“I always wanted to do this pilgrimage for the adventure and spiritual growth,” he says. “But whether you’re religious or not, everyone is looking for simplicity and getting to know themselves and meeting others. It’s just human.”

Standing where the Paris beltway now cuts through the pilgrims’ route, author David Downie muses about what he took away from months of walking in the sun, rain and snow. He didn’t have a religious epiphany, he says, but it did change his way of looking at things.

“You get a very different idea of what it means to be out in the elements, and distances, too. When you drive, you have no idea what distances have meant to humans for, well, since the beginning right?” he says. “Most people walked everywhere. And if you wanted to cover a thousand miles, you had to walk.”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/20/185577205/Modern-Pilgrims-Find-New-Meaning-Walking-An-Ancient-Path?ft=1&f=1004

British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 21 2013

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The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Kyle Heller/AP

The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Kyle Heller/AP

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

The Invincible class carrier was a victim of a 2010 defense review that recommended scrapping the vessel and selling its Harrier jump jets (they were subsequently sold to the U.S.). Ark Royal’s sister ship, HMS Illustrious, is due to be decommissioned next year, and a new class of British carrier, designed to launch and recover the F-35 joint strike aircraft, won’t come into service for nearly a decade.

The Daily Mail offers a bit of history on the vessel:

“HMS Ark Royal led UK naval forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and saw active service in Bosnia. The Invincible-class aircraft carrier was built by Swan Hunters in 1981 on the River Tyne and was named by Queen Elizabeth.

“Nearly 30 years later, the government then axed the famous warship in the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review. It is the most expensive warship built in the United Kingdom, costing a staggering £320million.

“There had been hopes HMS Ark Royal could be preserved as a museum ship, but the Ministry of Defense said she was in too poor a condition.

“Other proposals to reuse the ship included turning her into a commercial heliport, nightclub, school, or a casino.”

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/20/185578507/british-aircraft-carrier-hms-ark-royal-heads-for-scrap-yard?ft=1&f=1004

The Global Afterlife Of Your Donated Clothes

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 21 2013

Worker Charles Lee sorts through clothes at Mac Recycling near Baltimore. Textile recycling is a huge international business, and a small facility like Mac ships about 80 tons of clothes each week to buyers around the world.

Jackie Northam/NPR

On a bright and warm Saturday morning, there’s a steady flow of people dropping off donations at Martha’s Table, a charity in downtown Washington, D.C. A mountain of plastic and paper bags stuffed with used dresses, scarves, skirts and footwear expands in one corner of the room. Volunteers sort and put clothes on hangers. They’ll go on sale next door, the proceeds of which will help the needy in the area.

It’s a scene played out across the U.S.: people donating their old clothes, whether through collection bins or through large charities, to help others.

Melissa Vanouse donates clothes a couple times a year.

“I think it all pretty much stays local, that’s kind of the idea,” she says.

But it doesn’t. Martha’s Table, like other charities, only has so much room and can only keep clothes for so long. At some point, charities call in a textile recycling company.

Varied Uses

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Bales of used clothing are seen at Mac Recycling near Baltimore. Textile recycling is a huge international business, and a small facility like Mac ships about 80 tons of clothes each week to buyers around the world.

Jackie Northam/NPR

About 80 percent of the donations are carted away by textile recyclers, says Jackie King, the executive director of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles, a trade association for textile recyclers. She says that means about 3.8 billion pounds of clothing that is donated each year is recycled.

“Thirty percent of the materials are made into wiping cloths that are used in commercial and industrial use,” she says.

About 20 percent of the donated clothes and textiles are converted into fibers that are then made into a variety of other products, including carpet padding, insulation for autos as well as homes, and pillow stuffing.

King says nearly half the donated clothes – about 45 percent – is exported.

A forklift shuttles large pallets stacked with bins of donated clothes at Mac Recycling on the outskirts of Baltimore. A large section of the warehouse is packed with colorful 800-pound bales of clothing ready to ship out.

Robert Goode, the owner of Mac Recycling, says textile recycling is a huge international industry. He says his small warehouse alone ships about 80 tons of clothes each week to buyers throughout the world, including Central America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

“Pretty much you can pick any country and there’s a market for these items,” he says.

‘Competitive Business’

Goode says when the shipment arrives overseas, a wholesaler will break down the bales and send the clothes into different markets. At each step along the way in this process, someone makes money from the donated clothes.

“It is an extremely competitive business … items are bought and sold by the pound and you can literally make or lose a deal over half a cent a pound, quarter of a cent a pound,” Goode says.

He says the business has changed dramatically over the years. Customers in foreign markets are now setting up their own operations in the U.S., cutting out a middleman. King, SMART’s executive director, says textile recyclers are still finding strong demand for used clothing. But she says selling cheap garments, like those made in Bangladesh, is becoming increasingly difficult.

“I think one of the problems when they’re trying to sell the clothing abroad is the distinction between what’s good quality used clothing versus clothing that has maybe not been manufactured to the highest standards,” she says.

King says ultimately she hopes that more clothes — of good quality — are donated every year. Her organization, SMART, says 85 percent of all the clothing sold each year ends up in landfill.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/21/185596830/the-global-afterlife-of-your-donated-clothes?ft=1&f=1004

Syrian Troops Target Key Rebel-Held Town

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 20 2013

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Syrians inspect Saturday the rubble of buildings damaged by government airstrikes in Qusair, Syria. The image was provided by Qusair Lens, and was authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting.

ASSOCIATED AP

Dozens of people are dead in heavy fighting around the Syrian rebel-held city of Qusair where troops loyal to President Bashar Assad are making a strong push.

News reports say as many as 50 people are dead.

NPR’s Jonathan Blakley, who is in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, is reporting on the fighting for our Newscast Unit:

“Qusair is a strategically important town that lies between the city of Homs, where the Syrian uprising began two years ago, and the Lebanese border. The area has been under siege for weeks.

“If the government regains control of Qusair, it would also control an important route from the coast to the capital, Damascus.

“Opposition activists say the city has been bombarded by heavy shelling since early Sunday and residents have been forced into shelters.

“Syrian State TV says its troops have made their way into Qusair’s city center, but opposition groups deny it.”

The New York Times is reporting that Assad’s forces are being backed by fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Times reports that the battle “has brought Hezbollah’s role in Syria to the forefront as the war becomes a regional conflict, pitting Shiite-led Iran, the main backer of … Assad and Hezbollah, against the Sunni Muslim states and their Western allies that support the uprising.”

The fighting comes ahead of a U.S.-Russian brokered peace conference slated for next month. But as Eyder reported, Assad “essentially dismissed” to bring the civil war to a political solution.

“Believing that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground is unreal,” Assad said in an exclusive interview with the Argentine newspaper El Clarin.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/19/185363866/syrian-troops-target-key-rebel-held-town?ft=1&f=1004

Seeing The (Northern) Light: A Temporary Arctic Retirement

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 20 2013

By all the laws of anything, Winston Chen should not have quit his well-paying, mid-career job at a software company. But one day he was watching a TED Talk, one of those popular online video presentations, delivered by a New York designer.

“He presented this absolutely irresistible idea,” Chen says. “He said, ‘Why don’t we take five years out of retirement and spread them throughout your working life?’ “

So Chen told his wife about it. At first, convention held them at bay. “We feel the gravitational pull of what you should do as well as anybody,” he says.

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Marcus, Kristin, Winston and Nora (left to right) left their “Arctic dream” in the summer of 2012 to return to Boston.

Courtesy of Winston Chen

Marcus, Kristin, Winston and Nora (left to right) left their “Arctic dream” in the summer of 2012 to return to Boston.

Courtesy of Winston Chen

But two summers ago, they broke that gravitational pull. Chen took his family more than 3,000 miles away to Rødøy, a small granite island jutting from the Norwegian Sea north of the Arctic Circle. Chen’s wife, Kristin Botnen, was born in Norway. But she says the move wasn’t about returning home — or leaving home, either.

“For us, this was not an escape. We really liked our lives. But we still wanted a year where we could just do something completely different,” she says.

Completely different. Winston and Kristin and their two kids, 4 and 6, used the daylight that burns into the wee hours to explore the island of fewer than 200 residents. In their home videos, they discovered beaches so pristine, they looked tropical. Except — the water was really cold.

And they went out to fish for the big cod that roam the Barents Sea. They made chips by frying fish skin. They picked berries that bulged under the long Arctic sun and plucked eggs from seagull nests to cook for breakfast. It was wild, it was pristine. And then it got dark.

During the deep Arctic winter, the horizon held the sun down for months.

“I say the northern lights are the only consolation for the Arctic winter. Which is otherwise dark and stormy and cold,” Chen says.

“I don’t think the cold got any of us,” adds Botnen. “But the darkness — I think that could make any stable soul a little bit shaky.”

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Chen made to-do list for his year-long retirement, mapping out his activities, by hour, on a spreadsheet.

Courtesy of Winston Chen

Chen made to-do list for his year-long retirement, mapping out his activities, by hour, on a spreadsheet.

Courtesy of Winston Chen

To keep things stable, Chen mapped out an hourly schedule in a color-coded spreadsheet. It was basically a to-do list for his year-long early retirement.

“I had oil painting, photography, blogging, learning Norwegian, learning how to play the ukulele, reading long books that I haven’t had time to read,” Chen explains.

And he also taught himself something new: He wrote an iPhone application that reads text out loud.

“So part of that was occupying my time when it got dark,” he says. “So I wrote it without knowing that it would see the light of day.”

But it did. Chen posted it on the Apple’s App Store under the name Voice Dream and people started buying it. Now selling more than 500 copies a week, at $10 each, it’s sustaining the family on their return to Boston.

At home in their apartment, Botnen says the app did not make their Arctic adventure. “It’s hard to measure success based on the end-product,” Botnen says.”Because the process, and the year that we had, really was a good one.”

A good year. A retirement year, inserted into their working ones. One year that helped them find unexpected riches, personal and professional.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/20/183910777/seeing-the-northern-light-a-temporary-arctic-retirement?ft=1&f=1004

Children Of China’s Wealthy Learn Expensive Lessons

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 20 2013

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The children of wealthy Chinese attend classes designed to teach them how to do things like raise money for charity. The parents pay up to $10,000 a year to send their kids to weekend classes.

Angie Quan/NPR

The children of wealthy Chinese attend classes designed to teach them how to do things like raise money for charity. The parents pay up to $10,000 a year to send their kids to weekend classes.

Angie Quan/NPR

In China, having too much money is a relatively new problem. But the rapidly growing country is second only to the U.S. in its number of billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. And now an enterprising company has set up a course for kids born into wealthy families, who are learning how to deal with the excesses of extraordinary wealth.

For a moment, it looks like this high-end shopping mall in the southwestern city of Chengdu has been taken over by baby bankers. Kids in maroon neckties, white button-down shirts and khaki trousers are holding a charity sale to raise money for earthquake victims. They’re on a course dubbed a “mini-MBA” at China Britain Financial Education.

“Even for me, for all our teachers, we sometimes feel very surprised to hear how much pocket money they have,” says Paul Huang, the head of research and development. “One girl told our teacher that each year at the spring festival, she might have more than 20,000 U.S. dollars as pocket money.”

To put that in context, that’s almost four times the annual income in Chengdu. Urban incomes in China have rocketed; they’re 12 times what they were two decades ago. But still, these kids live in another world. Paul Huang describes the dreams of one student:

“Our teacher asked her, ‘What’s your ideal life in the future?’ She thought about it for a while, say, ‘I want to become a princess. I want to have a castle, and I will have lots of servants. I won’t do anything, because I’ve got lots of money, so I just buy whatever I want.’”

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The charity sale is designed to get the children to learn compassion, sharing and the value of money.

Angie Quan/NPR

The charity sale is designed to get the children to learn compassion, sharing and the value of money.

Angie Quan/NPR

Growing Disparities In Wealth

In China, income inequality is already past danger levels, according to a measure known as the Gini coefficient, which puts 0 at complete equality and 1 at complete inequality.

A figure of 0.4 or above is regarded as signifying dangerous levels of inequality. China scored 0.474 in 2012, according to its own figures, which it released in January for the first time in 12 years.

It claims that income inequality is down from a peak of 0.491 in 2008. But many suspect the real statistics may be different, and one Chengdu institute calculated it at an alarming 0.61 last December.

So the ulterior motive of the charity drive is to teach these kids how to care about others, to teach little rich kids how to give back to society.

As it gets underway, one kid is playing the trumpet for money. Another is selling his hastily drawn picture of a tank for $16. That’s way overpriced, but because it’s for charity, all the goods are being snapped up, mostly by parents wearing a parade of designer labels.

Allen, 9, is selling off his old books. “You can pay what you like,” he says, “because it’s all about showing a loving heart.”

But this budding businessman hasn’t brought all of his books, he says; otherwise, his family would lose money.

“Generally Chinese kids are spoiled,” admits his mom, Lisa Zheng. Her husband is the biggest culprit, she says, because he buys their son everything he wants.

But there’s a bigger problem too, she says: Money is the be-all and end-all in modern day China.

Paul Huang agrees, saying this mindset has created a morality vacuum, which plays out among both the rich and the poor.

“For the wealthy family, their problem is they don’t know and don’t care where money comes from, and they spend money in a disgusting way to other people,” he says. “For children from poor families, when they grow up, they try to do anything to get money. They don’t think it’s right or wrong. That’s another problem.”

These 25 kids raised $375 for charity, which is far more than if they’d been doing this on the streets. They’ve also learned cooperation, communication and the experience of giving back to society. But it’s ironic that learning the value of money comes at no small price: A year’s lessons cost the parents almost $10,000.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/20/182926183/Children-Of-Chinas-Wealthy-Learn-Expensive-Lessons?ft=1&f=1004

Bashar Assad: A Political Solution In Syria Is ‘Unreal’

Uncategorized | Posted by Israel Grossman Attorney

May 19 2013

Syrian President Bashar Assad essentially dismissed attempts by the United States and Russia to bring the civil war in the country to a political solution.

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Syrian President Bashar Assad made it clear in an interview with the Argentine newspaper El Clarin that he was not resigning.

Louai Beshara /AFP/Getty Images

Syrian President Bashar Assad made it clear in an interview with the Argentine newspaper El Clarin that he was not resigning.

Louai Beshara /AFP/Getty Images

“Believing that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground is unreal,” Assad said in an exclusive interview with the Argentine newspaper El Clarin. Assad also took the usual stance on a wide range of issues.

The New York Times sums up:

“Mr. Assad took a hard line throughout the interview, according to a transcript in English provided to The New York Times. He declared that he would run for election as scheduled in 2014 and would accept election monitors only from friendly countries like Russia and China.

“He also accused Israel of directly aiding rebels by providing intelligence on sites to attack, refused to acknowledge any mistakes in his handling of the two-year-old crisis, and disputed United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people had died in the conflict.”

According to El Clarin, Assad spoke from the presidential palace in Damascus. In the distance, the paper reports, you could hear sporadic artillery fire.

During the interview, Assad appeared to hint that he was open to dialogue. He said that when the revolution started, he instituted reforms, but all the rebels have done is resort to “terrorism.” He also said that the opposition is controlled by foreign forces and there are too many different groups to actually negotiate with.

“They are different groups and bands, not dozens but hundreds,” Assad said, according to a translation by The Guardian. “They are a mixture and each group has its local leader. And who can unify thousands of people? We can’t discuss a timetable with a party if we don’t know who they are.”

According to El Clarin‘s translation, Assad also said that his country would not negotiate with “terrorists.”

“We have an initiative that includes dialogue,” he said. “But as far as terrorists are concerned, no one has to talk with terrorists. Terrorists hit the U.S. and Europe, yet no one negotiated with terrorists. One talks with political forces, but not a terrorist who kills and uses chemical weapons.”

Assad would not say if he had any regrets and he also made it clear that he was not resigning.

“The captain of a ship doesn’t flee when faced with a storm,” he said. “I’m not a person who runs from responsibility.”

The Guardian translated the video posted on Clarin’s website:

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/18/185094064/bashar-assad-a-political-solution-in-syria-is-unreal?ft=1&f=1004

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