Because China is so populous, I usually think of it as a predominantly young society, a bit like India or African countries. But in actual fact, the two decades of strict family planning means that China has one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world. For the next 15 years, the number of people entering the work force will decline every year.
This is putting China in the somewhat odd position of a labour shortage - not in general terms, but in terms of the young, skilled, migrant workers prized by factories and technology companies. Wages are being driven up, and this in turn strips some of China's competitive advantage. Some of the work will probably now shift to Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
I feel like I should record that the Pope is dead. He is.
Damn, did you see the Aussie aid helicopter crash in Indonesia? 9 Australian Defence Force personnel killed.
And this is what happened in Florida in the two weeks of Terry Shiavo madness:
There was the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa, and the subsequent news, reported by The Miami Herald, that the whereabouts of 1,800 sex offenders registered with the state are unknown. The Legislature debated a bill that would allow law-abiding citizens to use deadly force against an attacker in public. The indictment of Orlando's mayor on a charge of paying someone to collect absentee ballots moved forward, and news emerged that a petting zoo was the likely source of a bacterial infection that sickened two dozen people, mostly children. - nytimes.com
I think what annoys me about the Terry Shiavo case is that was such a non-question. ALL the doctors said she was screwed. The courts ruled in line with the doctors. And I can't help but think if she hadn't been able to open her eyes and 'smile' or 'blink', and she'd just been lying there in bed for 15 years, there would have been no story. It just made good TV because she looked more alive than she was.
And finally, in the "only in America" file today:
Shootings Fuel A Drive To Ease Gun Laws
Paul Bucher, the district attorney for the Wisconsin county where a man opened fire in a church service last month, killing seven people and himself, has one answer to the deadly mass shootings around the country in recent weeks: more guns.
"The problems aren't the guns, it's the guns in the wrong hands," said Mr. Bucher, a Republican who recently announced his candidacy for Wisconsin attorney general. "We need to put more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
See, what I like about this approach is, Mr Bucher obviously has a cunning system that allows him to tell in advance who is going to remain a law-abiding gun-toting citizen, and who is going to run amok. This will be incredibly useful, because up 'til now, most people in these cases have called the perpetrator "a nice guy", "wouldn't hurt a fly", "such a quiet, gentle man".
That argument, like the violence, will escalate.
If you arm everyone and a shootout ensues *sp* then you can argue that the law abiding citizens required automatic or higher power weapons.
Everyone has an automatic weapon, you move on to armoured vehicles, then onto pilot-less drones with cruise missiles.
Personally, in order to save money, I am going to hold out on any large military purchases until I can get a diesel powered Submarine to play with in the bath.
Florida in fact *passed* the law allowing you to shoot an "attacker" in a public place.
Not a place I'm planning to go.
Posted by: Svend at April 8, 2005 03:07 PM