Nov. 19, 2006: 3

China dumping dollars

MoneyNews, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006: Dollar Drops Further on China Diversification

www.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2006/11/10/
082810.cfm?CFID=5663518&CFTOKEN=35076489

LONDON -- China will diversify its $1 trillion foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world, across different currencies and investment instruments, including in emerging markets, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday.

His remarks sent the dollar tumbling for a second day and fuelled a growing debate about how China should best use its fast-growing reserves, which are about 70 percent in U.S. debt securities, bankers estimate. [....]

Asked whether or not rates will rise further, Zhou said: "It is not convenient to say right now."

China Expects $150B Trade Surplus , MoneyNews, Nov. 10, 2006

www.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2006/11/10/
081702.cfm?CFID=5663518&CFTOKEN=35076489

BEIJING -- China's politically sensitive trade surplus should soar to a record $150 billion this year, nearly 50 percent above the 2005 level, according to Commerce Ministry figures reported Friday by a state news agency.

... mounting trade gap ....Washington and other trading partners ....demanding that China open markets wider to imports and ease controls that they say keep its currency weak, giving its exporters an unfair price advantage.

The Commerce Ministry said exports this year are expected to total $960 billion this year, with imports rising to $810 billion, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
That would produce a deficit of $150 billion, up from $102 billion in 2005.

... China's monthly trade surplus hit a record monthly high of $23.8 billion in October. It was the fifth new monthly record this year. [....]

China's president pledges to double aid to Africa , Updated Sat. Nov. 4 2006, AP

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/
20061104/china_aid_061104/20061104?hub=TopStories

BEIJING -- China's president pledged to double aid to Africa ... strengthening Beijing's ties to the continent amid its search for new oil sources and export markets.

China is trying to present itself as Africa's partner in economic development. ... complaints ... colonialism ... supports regimes with poor human rights records.

[....] "Africa provides for the growing Chinese economy a reliable field for investment, trade and the utilization of natural resources for mutual benefit," [Ethiopia's prime minister] Zenawi said in a speech at the Great Hall. "China provides for Africa a source of successful development experience, technology transfer, trade and investment."

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz accused Chinese banks last month of ignoring human rights and environmental standards as they lend more to Africa. He warned that the flood of new credit could fuel corruption and African debt burdens.

To cap the happy talk:

Beijing was hung with banners welcoming African leaders. .... On Saturday, state television showed Chinese surgeons working in African hospitals, a Kenyan stadium paid for by Beijing, and Chinese and African students dancing together.

In the time-honoured tradition of Asians entertaining delegations from away, would there have been females entertaining the visitors ... you know, working women who could speak of women's issues ... gender issues which have been an important aspect of Chinese involvement with Canadian academics and businesses? (Check any of the China-Canada websites emphasizing academic ties and business, and usually they mention women's issues.) Perhaps, there could be a culturally enlightening side trip to Hong Kong ... or to Bangkok where the delegates could watch globalization in action ... in the glitzier, entertainment districts.





Memory Lane -- Whistleblowers and criminal activity -- criminal gang and triad related

Undercover Mountie -- Bob Stenhouse was a cop's cop -- until he broke the code and blew the whistle on the RCMP , Robert Sheppard, Macleans.ca , November 26, 2001

www.macleans.ca/topstories/
article.jsp?content=60484

Lengthy and with details you must read, if you have not, already.

[....] To those who know him, Bob Stenhouse has an inner badge polished to a fine hue: he's strong-willed, dedicated, honest to a fault. Talk to him even for a short while or visit the Mountie room in his modest Edmonton bungalow, the guest room with the walls festooned with regimental memorabilia and commendations, and it's clear he has that other stuff as well. It's a potent mix. Bring it to a boil and you get that rare officer in a culture marked for its conformity -- an RCMP whistle-blower.

He is not the only one. A week ago, in an Ottawa hearing room, Cpl. Robert Read, 57, another veteran Mountie with 26 years on the force, went before a disciplinary board, charged, like Stenhouse, with disgraceful conduct and breach of oath for talking out of school. The two cases are not exactly alike. Read, the fourth officer sent to investigate allegations that Chinese gangs had corrupted immigration officials at the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong, became so angry after his findings were swept aside that he publicly charged senior officers with a coverup and released elements of an internal report to the media. Staff Sgt. Stenhouse, frustrated by years of trying to get intelligence officers and drug squads to work together against biker gangs, sent a batch of police policy documents to a Toronto journalist in the hope of starting a public debate.

Read was the first of the two whistle-blowers to be suspended. Stenhouse was the first to go through the sausage machine that is the RCMP's disciplinary process. Together they may -- eventually -- set new standards for Mounties who go public with their concerns. [....]

Within hours of Lavigne's book Hells Angels at War hitting the stands in October, 1999, Stenhouse sent e-mails to superiors and fellow officers outlining what he had done. "I didn't want someone else taking the blame for this," he says.[....]

Another problem: there is no federal whistle-blowing legislation as there is, for example, in the United States, some of it governing police (although Ottawa has just created a new position, integrity officer, to handle complaints by civil servants of mismanagement and wrongdoing).

In recent years, a handful of high-profile whistle-blowers within the federal civil service have gained prominence, mostly scientists at Health Canada. [....]

Don't miss it.


Frost Hits the Rhubarb October 6, 2005
Scam the Taxpayers, Get Half a Million -- But RCMP Get Fired for Doing Their Jobs -- Perhaps Too Well

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005/10/
scam-taxpayers-get-half-million-but.html

The link should have been:
www.macleans.ca/topstories/article.jsp?content=60484

Someone had changed the link to this:
www.nvweather.net/messages/organic_teas_290.html
Undercover Mountie -- a copy of an article published in Maclean's from Nov. 26, 01 by Robert Sheppard

One was a memo Stenhouse himself had written, arguing for more coherent, targeted investigations into suspected gangs -- instead of the turf-based system that divided the force into intelligence gatherers and criminal investigators.(And further divided the drug squad into units based on commodities such as marijuana and heroin, with the result that cops were chasing after small-timers with drugs in their possession rather than focusing on the kingpins.)


Check here for whether Stenhouse was onto something -- lengthy and full of information. Do not miss this article.

www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=
e5e3e3e6-31fb-4315-9687-c8f2a7e54952

Also, an article by Licia Corbella

calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/
2005/10/06/1250298.html

Ex-RCMP Staff Sgt. Stenhouse

Stenhouse v. Canada (Attorney General) (FC) Reference: [2004] 4 F.C.R. 437

T-1174-02
2004 FC 375
Robert G. Stenhouse (Applicant)
v.
Attorney General of Canada (Respondent)

Indexed as: Stenhouse v. Canada (Attorney General) (F.C.)

Federal Court, Kelen J.--Ottawa, February 9, 10 and March 12, 2004.
reports.fja.gc.ca/fc/2004/pub/v4/2004fc34308.html


Frost Hits the Rhubarb Aug. 7-13, 2005

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_08_07_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Search or scroll to:

"Governance and the Guardians: The RCMP", with some intriguing excerpts from Paul Palango's book on the RCMP. The following excerpt came to mind when I read of Myriam Bedard's partner and the art theft charge.

The Common Thread in the Politicization of the National Police Force?

In Quebec, politics have always played a large role in the justice system. [....]

Search:

Bilingualism 'far from widely endorsed' Bruce Cheadle

Beijing keeps tabs on Chinese Canadians: report Jim Bronskill

Global warming opens Northwest Passage Levon Sevunts

Injustice: yet it seems this man was correct, but we wouldn't want to impede the money making business, would we? Despite a Parliamentary Committee's efforts on his behalf after a Parliamentary investigation, a Justice Sean Harrington "reaffirmed his firing and effectively took away the whistleblower's pension and benefits."

There is no connection, of course, between the appointment of justices during the Jean Chretien mandate and this conclusion.

[....] Jean Chretien.

One of the cases Read pursued involved three Taiwanese brothers who brought 3,000 Asian families into Canada under our much maligned immigrant investor scheme. The trio was linked to fraud, bribery and the Chinese mafia. [....]

Some background on the judge who made the decision against ex-RCMP Cpl. Robert Read: Justice, the Honourable Sean J. Harrington

Sean J. Harrington of Montréal is appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Canada. He fills a newly created position [. . . . ]

Note: "a newly created position" ... coincidental, of course.

Chicoutimi Inquiry -- Judge Sean Harrington rejects media bid for open military inquiry into the fire aboard HMCS Chicoutimi -- one of the second hand subs bought for Canada by Jean Chretien