1 Chinese economy at 13-year low (BBC) China's economy,
the world's second largest, has grown at its slowest pace in 13 years as
domestic and global demand weakened. Gross
domestic product, the main measure of growth, increased by 7.8% in 2012, down
from 9.3% in 2011. However, government measures to boost growth are starting to
work, and there was a pick up in the last quarter. Economic stability is seen
as vital for China as new leaders are set to take over and try to lift living
standards.
Analysts said that the rebound in the economy during the
last three months of 2012, when growth picked up to 7.9% from 7.4% in the
previous three months, will help ease some concerns. However, they warned that
the government spending plans that helped stoke the economy will fade as 2013
continues, and that China would still be vulnerable to the impact of external
shocks in the US and Europe.
Rajiv Biswas, from IHS Global insight, said that the days
of China's blisteringly fast growth look to be over as it moves from a
low-income country to a middle-income one. "For 30 years, China grew at
about 10% on average, but the Chinese economy is now in transition," he
explained.
2 Snoop paradise (Khaleej Times) A new tool from Facebook
lets you run a “natural” search to find people with particular interests and
professions. Called the “graph search”, this smart engine will allow you
to run very specific searches — for example, graph search allows you to search
“friends of friends who like mint-chocolate ice cream” or “friends who recently
got engaged”.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg insists that this new
tool is not a Web search mechanism— and hence is not directly competiting with
Google — but is in fact a social graph that is constantly changing in tandem
with people’s tastes, whereabouts and personal relationships. Addressing
concerns regarding users’ privacy its founder stressed that only the
information that has been shared can be searched and accessed.
However, as
Facebook continues to introduce more tools to improve our ability to find
people online, it encourages the habit of compulsive online stalking. For
example, if you are in the Mall of Emirates you can search for “friends of
friends” who are there at that point in time— and theoretically, you can even
find out their exact location at MOE!
While the
social graph is being touted as the next step in social networking, the fact is
that it’s just another avenue of online spying. Now you don’t have to
sneak around individual profiles to get your daily fix of gossip and personal
information, you can actually run a search to know just exactly what you want
to know about your contacts. Welcome to snoop paradise!
The aim is to change the current system, in which a tiny, highly educated elite oversees vast armies of semi-trained factory workers and rural laborers. China wants to move up the development curve by fostering a much more broadly educated public, one that more closely resembles the multifaceted labor forces of the US and Europe. It is too early to know how well the effort will pay off.
While potentially enhancing China’s future as a global
industrial power, an increasingly educated population poses daunting challenges
for its leaders. With the Chinese economy downshifting in the past year to a
slower growth rate, the country faces a glut of college graduates with high
expectations and limited opportunities. Much depends on whether China’s
authoritarian political system can create an educational system that encourages
the world-class creativity and innovation that modern economies require, and
that can help generate enough quality jobs.
4 Zapiro cartoon on Lance Armstrong in Johannesburg
Times
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/06/13/zapiro-cartoons#leaf
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