Weekday MEGA news (10 Augest 2009) Monday
Singapore celebrates 44th birthday with party by the bay
Singapore celebrated its 44th birthday with a massive party by the bay — the National Day Parade (NDP) at the Marina Bay Floating Platform.
Over 27,000 people watched the NDP from the parade stands while thousands more caught the show around the bay area, on television and online.
It was a sea of red and white at the parade ground as the nation gathered for its biggest party of the year.
In the early part of the show, three F—16s swooped across the bay in what is known as the salute to the nation, wowing the crowd.
There was also a thrilling police boat chase on the Singapore River just metres away from the crowd, and some spills too — literally — with a Chinook flying low over the water.
Then it was all eyes on the skies as the audience caught the freefallers parachuting down to the parade ground.
Pomp and ceremony came in the more formal part of the show, with the guard—of—honour inspection by President SR Nathan as well as the 21—gun salute.
There was also a march past that for the first time saw contingents marching along a 3.2km stretch of road and past famous city landmarks just outside the bayfront area.
In addition, a staple at these annual shows — cultural performances to underscore the country’s multi—ethnic mix, but with enough twists to keep the crowd entertained.
And what’s a party without music? Local rock band Electrico performed their special composition for the occasion "What Do You See?".
Then in a special moment for a country which has been through some turbulent times this year, the bayfront turned silent at exactly 8.22pm for the participants to recite the national pledge.
It was the exact moment when organisers hoped, for the first time, all Singaporeans — even those outside the parade ground — would stop what they were doing to put their hand on their heart and recite the pledge.
Following that was an explosive finale to the parade as the brilliant fireworks display lit up the skies and dazzled the audience.
Singaporeans weren’t the only ones celebrating the country’s 44th birthday.
Tourists and expatriates were also at the NDP party, and they were impressed.
"This is on a very big scale compared to local carnivals....." said a British woman.
"I like how everyone’s here for one cause.....there are so many different races," said an American man.
The parade may be over but the party has only just begun for many others.
In fact, hundreds of performers were dancing the night away, and they’ve got every reason to celebrate, having put on such a great show — full of colour, music and action.
Over 27,000 people watched the NDP from the parade stands while thousands more caught the show around the bay area, on television and online.
It was a sea of red and white at the parade ground as the nation gathered for its biggest party of the year.
In the early part of the show, three F—16s swooped across the bay in what is known as the salute to the nation, wowing the crowd.
There was also a thrilling police boat chase on the Singapore River just metres away from the crowd, and some spills too — literally — with a Chinook flying low over the water.
Then it was all eyes on the skies as the audience caught the freefallers parachuting down to the parade ground.
Pomp and ceremony came in the more formal part of the show, with the guard—of—honour inspection by President SR Nathan as well as the 21—gun salute.
There was also a march past that for the first time saw contingents marching along a 3.2km stretch of road and past famous city landmarks just outside the bayfront area.
In addition, a staple at these annual shows — cultural performances to underscore the country’s multi—ethnic mix, but with enough twists to keep the crowd entertained.
And what’s a party without music? Local rock band Electrico performed their special composition for the occasion "What Do You See?".
Then in a special moment for a country which has been through some turbulent times this year, the bayfront turned silent at exactly 8.22pm for the participants to recite the national pledge.
It was the exact moment when organisers hoped, for the first time, all Singaporeans — even those outside the parade ground — would stop what they were doing to put their hand on their heart and recite the pledge.
Following that was an explosive finale to the parade as the brilliant fireworks display lit up the skies and dazzled the audience.
Singaporeans weren’t the only ones celebrating the country’s 44th birthday.
Tourists and expatriates were also at the NDP party, and they were impressed.
"This is on a very big scale compared to local carnivals....." said a British woman.
"I like how everyone’s here for one cause.....there are so many different races," said an American man.
The parade may be over but the party has only just begun for many others.
In fact, hundreds of performers were dancing the night away, and they’ve got every reason to celebrate, having put on such a great show — full of colour, music and action.
___________________________________________________________________________
Singapore comfirms one more death bringing a total to 9.
A 27—year—old woman has died, bringing H1N1—related deaths in Singapore to nine.
The woman had no known underlying medical conditions. She went to Changi General Hospital’s Emergency Department on 23 July with a four—day history of fever, cough and lethargy.
She was admitted to the intensive care unit and intubated. But her condition deteriorated and she died on Sunday morning from a heart attack, with H1N1—infection and pneumonia as contributing factors.
The woman had no known underlying medical conditions. She went to Changi General Hospital’s Emergency Department on 23 July with a four—day history of fever, cough and lethargy.
She was admitted to the intensive care unit and intubated. But her condition deteriorated and she died on Sunday morning from a heart attack, with H1N1—infection and pneumonia as contributing factors.
___________________________________________________________________________
Europe's dying Left
PARIS, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- France's giant BNP Paribas bank, which took more than $5 billion in state funds to help it through the financial crisis, provoked a political storm when it revealed last week that it was handing out more than $1 billion in bonuses to its staff.
But the attacks came from the center-right government that backs conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, more loudly and more effectively than from the divided and squabbling opposition Socialist party. It is a strange irony that Europe's traditionally powerful left-wing and social democratic parties seem unable to benefit from the most severe crisis of capitalism since the 1930s.
"Is the PS (Parti Socialiste) going to die? No. It is dead," says prominent French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. "No one, or almost no one, dares say it. But everyone, or almost everyone, knows it's true."
What remained of the party that Francois Mitterand repeatedly led to power was a "dead body" that had been taken over by a "reactionary ideology" and was "losing whatever remained of its soul," he said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche. "The PS does not embody any kind of hope. It provokes merely anger and exasperation."
Britain's Labor Party is still in power but demoralized and divided, and opinion polls suggest it is heading for catastrophic defeat at the next general election under the leadership of the unpopular Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In Germany, the Social Democratic Party is currently the junior member of a coalition government but also appears to be heading for defeat in next month's election.
Ten years ago moderate socialists ruled Britain, France and Germany, Europe's three leading economies, and Britain's Tony Blair claimed to be pioneering a "third way," a new and market-friendly form of progressive politics that would take the traditional parties of the left into a new century. That claim looks hollow today, even though the rising unemployment and bankruptcy statistics and the decline in economic output should be favorable political terrain for the left.
But Europe's labor movement and its parties face three main problems. The first is that higher productivity and automation have shrunk the once-massive labor unions and the industrial working class that formed their political base.
The second problem was that the Socialists proved vulnerable to new political challengers for the "progressive" vote from the Green parties and centrist parties like Britain's Liberal-Democrats and Germany's Free Democrats. At the same time their grip on working-class votes was challenged by new groups from both Left, like France's Trotskyists and Germany's former Communists from what used to be East Germany, and from the populist and anti-immigrant far Right, like the British National Party and France's National Front.
France's Socialists were beaten into third place in the 2002 presidential election by National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. And this summer in the elections to the European Parliament France's Socialists were almost beaten in their share of the popular vote by the Greens, and Britain's Labor party was run close by the anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party. Altogether, Britain's minor parties took an unprecedented 28 percent of the vote.
The third element of the Left's crisis is that Blair's "third way" represented an important ideological shift away from the old faith in public ownership and state control of the commanding heights of the economy. This meant that the old socialist parties were reduced to claiming that they could run a capitalist system more efficiently and more humanely than the parties of capital.
This left the Labor and Social Democratic parties looking just as responsible for the financial crisis and the job losses that came with globalization and low-wage competitions as the traditional conservative parties. It undercut their ability to exploit the current economic difficulties and left them with few alternatives to offer.
So some leading figures on the French left like Manuel Valls, mayor of Evry and a declared candidate for the next presidential election, are openly calling for the party to drop the name "Socialist."
"The French Socialist party is at risk of dying out," claims Valls, 44, one of the party's "next generation" of leaders who openly defy party leader Martine Aubry for lackluster leadership and a "kneejerk anti-Sarkozyism" with no credible policies on hot-button topics from globalized labor markets to immigration and the environment. Aubry's response was to suggest that if Valls felt that way he should leave the party. The party's divisions have become so embarrassingly public that Socialist members of the National Assembly issued a statement urging those "praying for a collective suicide" to stop the infighting.
The beneficiaries of this process -- Europe's conservatives -- are far from complacent. They know they are also vulnerable to populist appeals on unemployment, globalization and swollen bonuses for "fat cat" bankers. They also fear the emergence of new coalitions against them, the kind of "progressive alliance" of the Left and Greens that formed the German government from 1997 to 2005.
In France, that brings a new spotlight onto that old figure of the 1968 Paris student revolts, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, whose Europe Ecologie Party benefited from disillusionment with the traditional Left to beat the Socialists into an embarrassing third place in Paris. Widely popular and good on TV, Cohn-Bendit used to be known as Dany le Rouge (Dany the red) but is now Dany the Green and is the candidate that Sarkozy is said to fear the most in the next presidential election.
But the attacks came from the center-right government that backs conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, more loudly and more effectively than from the divided and squabbling opposition Socialist party. It is a strange irony that Europe's traditionally powerful left-wing and social democratic parties seem unable to benefit from the most severe crisis of capitalism since the 1930s.
"Is the PS (Parti Socialiste) going to die? No. It is dead," says prominent French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. "No one, or almost no one, dares say it. But everyone, or almost everyone, knows it's true."
What remained of the party that Francois Mitterand repeatedly led to power was a "dead body" that had been taken over by a "reactionary ideology" and was "losing whatever remained of its soul," he said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche. "The PS does not embody any kind of hope. It provokes merely anger and exasperation."
Britain's Labor Party is still in power but demoralized and divided, and opinion polls suggest it is heading for catastrophic defeat at the next general election under the leadership of the unpopular Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In Germany, the Social Democratic Party is currently the junior member of a coalition government but also appears to be heading for defeat in next month's election.
Ten years ago moderate socialists ruled Britain, France and Germany, Europe's three leading economies, and Britain's Tony Blair claimed to be pioneering a "third way," a new and market-friendly form of progressive politics that would take the traditional parties of the left into a new century. That claim looks hollow today, even though the rising unemployment and bankruptcy statistics and the decline in economic output should be favorable political terrain for the left.
But Europe's labor movement and its parties face three main problems. The first is that higher productivity and automation have shrunk the once-massive labor unions and the industrial working class that formed their political base.
The second problem was that the Socialists proved vulnerable to new political challengers for the "progressive" vote from the Green parties and centrist parties like Britain's Liberal-Democrats and Germany's Free Democrats. At the same time their grip on working-class votes was challenged by new groups from both Left, like France's Trotskyists and Germany's former Communists from what used to be East Germany, and from the populist and anti-immigrant far Right, like the British National Party and France's National Front.
France's Socialists were beaten into third place in the 2002 presidential election by National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. And this summer in the elections to the European Parliament France's Socialists were almost beaten in their share of the popular vote by the Greens, and Britain's Labor party was run close by the anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party. Altogether, Britain's minor parties took an unprecedented 28 percent of the vote.
The third element of the Left's crisis is that Blair's "third way" represented an important ideological shift away from the old faith in public ownership and state control of the commanding heights of the economy. This meant that the old socialist parties were reduced to claiming that they could run a capitalist system more efficiently and more humanely than the parties of capital.
This left the Labor and Social Democratic parties looking just as responsible for the financial crisis and the job losses that came with globalization and low-wage competitions as the traditional conservative parties. It undercut their ability to exploit the current economic difficulties and left them with few alternatives to offer.
So some leading figures on the French left like Manuel Valls, mayor of Evry and a declared candidate for the next presidential election, are openly calling for the party to drop the name "Socialist."
"The French Socialist party is at risk of dying out," claims Valls, 44, one of the party's "next generation" of leaders who openly defy party leader Martine Aubry for lackluster leadership and a "kneejerk anti-Sarkozyism" with no credible policies on hot-button topics from globalized labor markets to immigration and the environment. Aubry's response was to suggest that if Valls felt that way he should leave the party. The party's divisions have become so embarrassingly public that Socialist members of the National Assembly issued a statement urging those "praying for a collective suicide" to stop the infighting.
The beneficiaries of this process -- Europe's conservatives -- are far from complacent. They know they are also vulnerable to populist appeals on unemployment, globalization and swollen bonuses for "fat cat" bankers. They also fear the emergence of new coalitions against them, the kind of "progressive alliance" of the Left and Greens that formed the German government from 1997 to 2005.
In France, that brings a new spotlight onto that old figure of the 1968 Paris student revolts, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, whose Europe Ecologie Party benefited from disillusionment with the traditional Left to beat the Socialists into an embarrassing third place in Paris. Widely popular and good on TV, Cohn-Bendit used to be known as Dany le Rouge (Dany the red) but is now Dany the Green and is the candidate that Sarkozy is said to fear the most in the next presidential election.
Go to http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/08/10/Walkers-World-Europes-dying-Left/UPI-84571249909200/.
___________________________________________________________________________
South African Police Officials Meet With Country Businessmen in Cape Town
Somalia — South African police and business officials have met with the Somali businessmen in Cape Town in South Africa, just as the US secretary state Mrs. Hilary Clinton is in a tour there, officials told Shabelle radio on Saturday.
Some of the Somali business officials in Cape Town said that there are meeting between the black merchants, police officials and Somalis in South Africa saying that their aim was to assure the security of the Somali businessmen and protect the problems of the Somali people in there.
There had been talks between the police and residents in Khayalisha village near Cape Town city in over the recent days and discussed more on deal signed by the Somali and black South African merchants there.
Abdukadir Ali better known as (A. K), one of the Somali businessmen in Khalisha village told Shabelle radio through the telephone that the meeting was also talked more about an agreement signed by both Somali and South African merchants last year which was not to reopen another shop at over there saying that the Somalis violated the deal pointing out that they had reopened another new shops there.
Mr. A. K said that the Somalis are refugees in South Africa and do not have the jobs that the citizens of that country have adding that was the reason caused for the Somali people to establish shops in the safety areas in the country to continue their business movement.
The Somali people in South Africa often build improper building for shopping which brings to other previous South African businessmen to be angry and storm them killing the owners of the Somali business centers by using armed forces in the country.
Some of the Somali business officials in Cape Town said that there are meeting between the black merchants, police officials and Somalis in South Africa saying that their aim was to assure the security of the Somali businessmen and protect the problems of the Somali people in there.
There had been talks between the police and residents in Khayalisha village near Cape Town city in over the recent days and discussed more on deal signed by the Somali and black South African merchants there.
Abdukadir Ali better known as (A. K), one of the Somali businessmen in Khalisha village told Shabelle radio through the telephone that the meeting was also talked more about an agreement signed by both Somali and South African merchants last year which was not to reopen another shop at over there saying that the Somalis violated the deal pointing out that they had reopened another new shops there.
Mr. A. K said that the Somalis are refugees in South Africa and do not have the jobs that the citizens of that country have adding that was the reason caused for the Somali people to establish shops in the safety areas in the country to continue their business movement.
The Somali people in South Africa often build improper building for shopping which brings to other previous South African businessmen to be angry and storm them killing the owners of the Somali business centers by using armed forces in the country.
___________________________________________________________________________
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- Asian countries need to move to domestic demand to ensure their growth in light with the strains in the global economic climate, says Dr Laura Tyson, the Economic Adviser to US President Barack Obama.
Dr Tyson, who was also Economic Adviser to former US President Bill Clinton, said the countries need to create more opportunities for the development of small and medium businesses.
The Professor of Haas Business School said Asian countries have to find a "little more of their growth from domestic demand."
"Creating more new opportunities for the development of small and medium businesses and spending more money for domestic demand programmes like healthcare will generate a lot of jobs and a lot of domestic demand internally as they are not very export-driven," she told reporters on the sidelines of the World Capital Markets Symposium organised by the Securities Commission.
Dr Tyson also said the International Monetary Fund was currently developing a new programme to help countries to quickly deal with economic crisis.
Dr Tyson, who was also Economic Adviser to former US President Bill Clinton, said the countries need to create more opportunities for the development of small and medium businesses.
The Professor of Haas Business School said Asian countries have to find a "little more of their growth from domestic demand."
"Creating more new opportunities for the development of small and medium businesses and spending more money for domestic demand programmes like healthcare will generate a lot of jobs and a lot of domestic demand internally as they are not very export-driven," she told reporters on the sidelines of the World Capital Markets Symposium organised by the Securities Commission.
Dr Tyson also said the International Monetary Fund was currently developing a new programme to help countries to quickly deal with economic crisis.
___________________________________________________________________________
New Zealand central bank buys NZ$6 mln in June
WELLINGTON, Aug 10 - New Zealand's central bank bought a net NZ$6 million in June, its first net purchase in three months, according to data released on Monday.
That compared with net sales of NZ$3 million in May and NZ$2 million in April.
The data also showed the RBNZ's net open currency position, which includes revaluations, was NZ$36 million higher at NZ$3.88 billion. The central bank's foreign intervention capacity rose NZ$50 million to NZ$11.74 billion.
No comments:
Post a Comment