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Saturday, February 6, 2010

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Smoke danger highest in Internet cafes

2010-2-4

By Liang Yiwen

SECOND-HAND smoke in Shanghai Internet cafes is seven times more dangerous than in outdoor public spaces, putting users at risk of pneumonia and asthma, Fudan University researchers said today.


And restaurant workers were 7.5 times more likely to develop respiratory diseases than kindergarten staff, according to their research from the School of Public Health.


They measured tiny particulate matter, smaller than 2.5 micrometers, in Internet cafes and found the air seven times denser than that in the outdoors.


Researchers studied 3,500 people from seven industries in a Smoke-Free Shanghai Campaign before smoking bans come into force on March 1.


They found the air quality in leisure parlors and catering industries the worst and many workers reported asthmatic coughs, eye pain, and respiratory irritations.

View Article in the Shanghai Daily

JAPAN: A rich dish to keep you fit

seasonal100206_00

(Feb. 6, 2010)

By Yasushi Wada / Daily Yomiuri Photographer

Miso from Tokyo

"Miso keeps the doctor away."

This proverb from the Edo period (1603-1867) indicates that people in those days believed regularly consuming miso in one way or another would keep them healthy.

Through its fermentation process, miso becomes rich in soy protein, lactic acid bacterium, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, miso really is healthy, but because of its salty content should be eaten in moderation.

Kojiya Saburoemon in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, is the only miso maker in Tokyo. The 120-year-old family concern uses traditional methods to produce about 30 tons of miso annually.

"The secret to the tastiness of our miso is that we use a lot of rice malt," explains Masahiro Tsujita, the eldest son of Kiyoshi Tsujita, the sixth-generation owner.

Major miso producers use a 1-to-0.6 ratio of soybeans to rice malt, but Kojiya settled on a 1-to-1 ratio after studying traditional miso-making methods. It also makes a miso with a higher malt ratio.

Kojiya uses steamed homegrown soybeans and rice malt, natural salt and groundwater to make its miso. The ingredients are mixed and placed in large barrels made from Akita cedar that can hold two tons of miso. The barrels are then covered and left to stand for six months to one year. The fermenting periods differ according to the variety of miso.

"We put ingredients into barrels several times a year to maintain stocks. Miso fermented at this time of year tastes best," Tsujita said. "Fermentation takes longer during the cold period from January to March, but the taste is great."

seasonal100206_01These three types of miso--left to right, pale-colored, red and sweet--are among those produced by Kojiya Saburoemon. The longer the miso ferments, the darker its color.

seasonal100206_02 Masahiro Tsujita cools steamed soybeans with help from his family.

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Tsujita dumps the mixed miso ingredients into a large barrel made of Akita cedar.

seasonal100206_04Fresh miso on a cucumber is the best way to sample miso, according to Tsujita.

seasonal100206_05 

To make rice malt, the surface of the rice is covered with koji mold and left for four days.

View article…

CHINA: 'Let The West Get Used To A Tough China'

Chinese People's Liberation Army sailors march

Chinese People's Liberation Army sailors march past Beijing's Tiananmen Square last October during celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Feng Li/Getty Images

February 4, 2010

by Anthony Kuhn

China has halted its military cooperation with the U.S. and threatened this week to sanction American companies involved in selling arms to Taiwan.

Beijing's sharp reaction came after Washington announced a $6.4 billion weapons deal to Taiwan. It is something of a role reversal.

Usually, it has been the U.S. sanctioning China. But now, China is pushing back on a raft of contentious issues, from Washington's efforts to seek sanctions against Iran to President Obama's plan to meet Tibet's exiled religious leader the Dalai Lama.

We're beginning to master ways to make the U.S. feel pain. Otherwise, it will just do as it pleases.

- Yuan Peng, a U.S. expert at a government think tank in Beijing

"Let The West Get Used To A Tough China," was the headline this week in the Global Times, a jingoistic Chinese tabloid.

After arms sales to Taiwan in the past, China could do little more than lodge a perfunctory verbal protest. But this wasn't very effective, says Yuan Peng, a U.S. expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank in Beijing.

"By sanctioning these firms, we're learning from the U.S.," he argues. "We're beginning to master ways to make the U.S. feel pain. Otherwise, it will just do as it pleases."

Yuan says many Chinese initially had hopes that the Obama administration would bring a fresh approach to ties with Beijing, emphasizing cooperation on global issues such as climate change and non-proliferation, over bilateral disputes concerning Taiwan, Tibet and human rights.

This fresh approach seems not to have materialized, Yuan says, and now Beijing will no longer accept Washington's explanations about what previous administrations did, or concessions it has to make to domestic politics.

"We know you have domestic politics, but we have domestic politics, too," Yuan says. "You have difficulties, and so do we. But the Taiwan issue is one of our core national interests."

One of the key factors in China's domestic politics is public opinion, which is becoming louder and more diverse, especially on the Internet. And it is calling for a tougher line toward the United States.

Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (right) addresses the World Economic Forum annual meeting last week in Davos, Switzerland. Li pledged that China would "work with other countries in a joint endeavor to build a harmonious world."  Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Political commentator Wu Jiaxiang says that recent headlines have helped to boost China's national confidence and pride.

"China has surpassed Germany to become the world's largest exporter," Wu notes. "This year, China's GDP is set to overtake Japan. China's auto production is more than the U.S. and Japan's combined. All this news taken together makes people feel like China's got lots of muscle."

Some observers even detected a bit of swagger when Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun warned Obama this week not to go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama.

"If America's leaders choose to meet the Dalai Lama at this time, it would ruin trust and cooperation between the two countries," he told reporters. "How would that help the U.S. surmount the current economic crisis? It would be useless."

The implication seemed to be that the American president should be busy digging the U.S. out of its economic hole rather than meddling in China's internal affairs.

But the U.S. and China have big global issues to cooperate on, and few analysts see the current chill as lasting very long. Analysts expect China to restore suspended military exchanges after a few months. And few are worried that it will derail a planned visit to the U.S. by Chinese President Hu Jintao later this year.

Meanwhile, China's leaders continue to present their country as a responsible world power, not a global contrarian.

That was the message when Vice Premier Li Keqiang recently addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"As a responsible big developing country, China will remain steadfast on the path of peaceful development and work with other countries in a joint endeavor to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity," Li said.

Yuan Peng, of the government think tank in Beijing, says his only worry is that by sanctioning U.S. firms such as Boeing, United Technologies and Raytheon, China will scare off foreign investors, some of whom are already jittery after Google's recent threat to pull out of the China market.

"China needs to avoid sending the wrong message to the outside world through these sanctions," Yuan cautions. "And that is that we are finding an excuse to drive off foreign investment. That's not our intention. Western countries, meanwhile, should realize that these sanctions are a singular event."

Yuan adds that it's only natural that foreign investors are receiving a cooler reception in China these days. China's shift away from foreign-invested exports toward domestic consumption is, after all, what the West has been pushing China to do for some time.

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RUSSIA: On this day: 6 February

On February 6, 1722, Emperor Peter I approved the “Table of Ranks,” the document that changed the bureaucratic system of the Russian Empire for nearly 300 years.

A popular story says that Peter got the idea of the “Table of Ranks” from the mathematician Gotfried Leibniz. It is more possible that Peter developed the “Table” by himself. He studied the laws of different European countries, and based his system on Danish legislation.

At the end of the 17th century, the precise rank structure existed neither in the Russian army nor in Russian civil services. The European army ranks – captain, major, general - were mixed with traditional Russian titles. There were independent systems of ranks and titles in the Duma, in the court, in the departments, and the functions of different officials were not defined clearly. The basic feature of this structure was a lack of opportunity for common people to achieve any title – only the patrimonial aristocrats had such rights.

Peter I divided all the positions in the army and civil services into three types - civil, military and court - and into 14 classes or ranks. Every civil servant, military man or courtier had to start his service at the lowest rank and then to move up the career ladder to the top rank. Peter did not deprive anyone of the old titles, but stopped conferring them, so rather soon they all were gone.

According to the “Table”, lineage was not a justification for career development anymore – noblemen and people from low orders served on the same terms. Every man from a low estate received individual nobility upon joining the army or entering civil service, and inheritable nobility after achieving high-rank positions. After every revision of the “Table,” this statement changed and the mentioned rank became higher.

To enter the service or to join the army one had to be educated. Peter prohibited uneducated people not only from building a career, but also from getting married. When one was discharged, his rank did not change, and only a court of law could deprive a man of his rank.

Actually, the “Table” regulated the entire lives of military men and the civil servants. They had to wear the liveries appropriate for their ranks, and to own the appropriate carriages. If at a public ceremony one demanded honors not suitable for his rank, he had to pay a big fine. The “Table of Ranks” applied even to women. Married women moved from rank to rank according to the career progress of their husbands, and the daughters’ ranks were based on the ranks of their fathers.

Noblemen who avoided service were punished, but they tried to do it anyway. There was a loophole in the law - one could move from rank to higher rank not because of his merits, but because of the length of service. Knowing that, many noblemen signed their little children up to the army. When the child reached the draft age, he went to the army not as a soldier, but as a highly-ranked officer. In 1796, Emperor Pavel I prohibited this custom – he had arranged a troop review and hundreds of mothers with newborn children had come to St. Petersburg.

The “Table” was in force until the revolution in 1917.

CHINA: Crisis-hit Coca-Cola is liable for cockroach in drink bottle

2010-2-5

By Wang Xiang     

A DISTRICT court in Beijing found soft drink giant Coca-Cola responsible for a cockroach in a bottle of Sprite, raising questions about the company's sanitary conditions amid investigations into two cases of mercury poisoning after drinking the lemonade.


A consumer surnamed Gao said he found a 3-centimeter cockroach in a bottle of Sprite dated June 2007 before he opened it. He sued the company for reimbursement and one yuan (15 US cents) token compensation for mental damage, reported yesterday's Beijing Times.


Daxing District People's Court ruled on Wednesday that the company must reimburse Gao 2.05 yuan for the bottle of Sprite.
Police yesterday took Sprite cans for independent testing after two Beijing people became ill with mercury poisoning after drinking the lemonade.


China Packaging Research & Test Center will find out whether the cans had been tampered with, which could prove Coca-Cola's theory that someone added the mercury while the drinks were on store shelves.


A 13-year-old boy named Wang Cheng was the latest to fall ill after drinking Sprite on January 17.


His father Wang Yijun said his son was now getting better after 19 days of treatment but will continue to press for a thorough investigation. Coca-Cola has offered to pay his medical bills out of "humane concerns."


Medical bills


Last November, Beijing native Ma Sai, 21, vomited mercury and required treatment after drinking Sprite bought in a restaurant. Coca-Cola paid Ma 20,000 yuan to cover his medical bills, according to Beijing News.


The company issued a statement after the incidents were reported, ruling out contamination at its Beijing plant. The company said it believed a third party had "maliciously" added the mercury after the canning process.

The company's publicity official Chen Yi said sales of Sprite have been influenced by the incidents. He insisted that there was no fault on the company's side.


Beijing police said they are still investigating whether there are any connections between the two cases.

View Article in the Shanghai Daily