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March 27th, 2009
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Global Recession Survey: Survival Tips and Business Opportunities
The global economic recession is spreading gloom and despair everywhere. But the human spirit cannot be easily defeated. Many are trying hard to cope with the crisis. Bloggers are offering survival tips to their readers. Businesses around the world are adjusting. They are adopting new strategies; some are even profiting from the crisis. In this post, I will try to mention numerous examples of individuals and companies exerting their very best to overcome the recession.
Surviving the recession
Frank Coelho de Alcantara from Brazil believes that in times of crisis, some cry while others sell tissue. To survive the crisis, he advises everyone to be innovative:
Inove. Melhore o que já existe e venda. A crise só existe para os que choram e compram lenços.
Evandro Sudré, another Brazilian blogger, emphasizes the need to cultivate an “inner strength and resolution reservoir” during hard times:
Problemas e adversidades fazem parte da vida diária, mas quando a crise nos atinge, é bom ter alguma reserva de força interior e resolução. De fato ter algum tipo de reserva na mente, da qual possamos formar um plano básico de ação e defesa com a qual possamos lidar com a situação. Você é a pessoa mais qualificada para ajudar nesta situação.
But there are those who are too overwhelmed with money problems that the only solution they could think of is to commit suicide. For example, more than 70 cases of suicide were reported in Gujarat, India involving diamond polishers who lost their jobs.
Others have chosen to fight. Investors (mainly in Antigua) who lost their money after U.S. billionaire Allen Stanford was charged with investment fraud banded together and formed a coalition to recover their wealth. The Stanford Victims Coalition issued this statement on their website:
Stanford Victims Coalition is an international advocacy group dedicated to fighting for the recovery of the billions of dollars belonging to the thousands of innocent people who are affected by the alleged fraud of Stanford Financial Group and Stanford International Bank in Antigua. SVC is not affiliated with any political group and there are no membership fees for victims to join.
In Brunei bloggers are criticizing bankrupt individuals who wanted to receive surplus funds from zakat collections. The paying of zakat, one of the pillars of Islam, is an act of giving up a percentage of one's wealth to the needy. Many were surprised that Bruneians with big credit card bills, automobile loans, and personal loans attempted to tap the zakat funds.
The recession is affecting the physical and mental health of many individuals. In Singapore gym and yoga studios are overcrowded since many want to release the economy-related tension; and those who have been retrenched are now spending more time on exercise. Singapore was the first Asian country to be hit by the recession last year.
Homesickhome, a worker in Qatar, discovered that the financial crisis can somehow solve shopping addiction.
Kapital, a Bulgarian weekly asked its readers how the crisis is affecting them. Simeon Djankov summarizes the results of the open forum
I read the answers to-date and found some expected and some unexpected things.
Rents went up, as few people can afford mortgages; several small businesses said their larger rivals are in such trouble that there is more opportunity for them; stopped watching TV (as the news is so gloomy); less social divide - the nouveau rich are only nouveau now; more time to read; take more interest in the rest of the world. My personal favorite: find economics more interesting.
Business adjustments
What are some the adjustments implemented by the business sector in response to the global crisis?
Instead of reducing the workforce, some companies in the Philippines are adopting shorter workweek hours. Because of low occupancy in their buildings, some landlords in the Manila are lowering the rates for office space. A Japanese company in South Korea used its savings and accumulated profits over the years to protect the living of its workers.
Fiji’s business leaders succeeded in pressuring the government to postpone the minimum wage increase promised to the country’s workers. They warned that the increase would force more layoffs and shutdowns. This is bad news for the labor sector.
Roshni Mahtani, founder and editor of www.theasianparent.com, suggests these cost-cutting measures for small businesses
1. Give Up Office Space. Monthly Savings: $1,500
2. Go Open Source. One Time Savings: $4,000. Monthly Savings: $100
3. Skype! Monthly Savings: Between $100 - $150
4. Interns. Monthly Savings: $500
5. Virtual Meetings. Monthly Savings: $100
6. Scale. Monthly Savings: $300
7. Incentivizing. Monthly Savings: Between $750 to $1,000 per sales staff.
8. Partnerships. Monthly Savings: $100 - $150
9. Save The Trees (And Money). Monthly Savings: $200
10. Social Media Marketing. One Time Savings: $2,600Total Monthly Savings: Between $4,500 - $5,000 a month
Total One Time Savings: $6,600
Michel Monteiro from Brazil writes about the campaign launched by retail chain Ponto Frio: Customers who buy from the store will now have an insurance in case they are made unemployed, free of charge, covering the value of their purchases.
O interessante é que essa ação tem como enfoque a atual crise economica, e em seu anuncio busca tirar o temor que existe nas pessoas de comprar e não poder pegar, o que gera queda nas vendas. Assim, o consumidor poderá voltar a comprar, e fazer o dinheiro movimentar a economia.
Mais do que uma inteligente proposta de marketing, a ação é um serviço ao país, pois - de forma inteligente -, faz a economia nacional girar capital, e consequentemente manter níveis de venda, empregos, etc.
More than a clever marketing idea, the practice is a good service to the country, because - very intelligently - it makes money circulate in the national economy, and consequently, it maintains high levels of sales, jobs, etc.
Russia's “Financial Crisis Toilet Paper”. The label reads: What is to be done? From the blog of Notes on Moscow
Business opportunities
There are companies which continue to earn profit despite the crisis. Some of them are even benefiting from the crisis.
In Japan some of the profitable businesses today are the following: small and medium companies which process and sell parts of raw materials, fastfood outlets, e-commerce service providers, pachinko industry (gaming device).
Chikara Ueki from Japan shares a conversation with an entrepreneur about turning the crisis into an opportunity
１００年に一度と言われている経済危機、考え方を変えると１００年に一度のチャンスかもしれない。不況業種も含め、全ての産業に言えることかもしれません。
ただ、事例の通り何もしなくてもチャンスは生まれるのではなく、コツコツとやってきたご褒美だと思います。
However, as this case shows, it didn't just come out of nowhere. It is a reward for a long period of steady efforts.
Philippine Airlines increased its service in several countries which blogger Caswell Whiteside interpreted as a sign that more and more retrenched Filipino migrant workers are now returning home
Recently Philippine Air Lines began a service every day to Canada and the US whereas up until now service had been limited to four days a week in some cases, depending on the destination. Of course PAL played it up as being ‘new and better service’ to the public while in reality it is to facilitate the number of Filipino workers who have been laid off by their employers in several countries throughout the world, mainly Japan and the US and are returning home.
Part of Thailand’s stimulus plan covers the distribution of checks worth 55 US dollars to every low-income worker. The beneficiaries can use the checks to purchase store items in McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and 18 other major business outlets in the country. KFC even awards 20 pieces of free chicken to stimulus beneficiaries who exchange their checks for store coupons.
Every Woman’s Blog agrees with a condom maker who observes that people buy more condoms during recession because they wanted to prevent pregnancies.
I believe there is a lot of truth and logic in that. During difficult and uncertain times, people do not want to be caught unprepared with an addition in the family which will mean more financial burden on them.
Douglas Muir expects a sharp drop in birth rates in the world, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe.
Back to basics
Because of the recession, some are learning to appreciate the basic laws of doing business like providing first-rate service to customers. A Brazilian popcorn seller has won recognition for his creative ways of doing business. He has already given many lectures on entrepreneurship.
Agriculture is popular again among Japanese youth and celebrities as more people search for economic activities that have stronger foundations than the financial sector. Kamiyama Yasuharu notes that the agricultural boom has become an interesting keyword in Japanese society today.
Cambodia reaffirms its reliance on agriculture to promote economic growth. A Lao economist believes that the “agriculture-based, self-sufficient nature” of the country’s economy will protect Laos from the global financial crisis. The economist added
People who live in industrialized countries live in fear of losing their jobs because they can’t grow vegetables and raise animals as people can in Laos.
In Jamaica, leaders of 21 private sector bodies have formed a pact of cooperation to offset the impact of the worsening global economic conditions. They have re-learned the value of creating a “social partnership dialogue” between the government, opposition, labor, business and civil society.
The thumbnail image used is from the Flickr page of suburbanslice. The Portuguese text was translated by GV editor Paula. The Japanese text was translated by GV editor Scilla.
Sudan: Chilling Account of the Arrest of an Online Activist
Sudanese Internet activist and lawyer Abdel Hakim Abdel Rahman Nasr was arrested in a raid on his house on the night of March 5 - and released March 11.
Nasr was detained only a few hours after he expressed his support for the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on the online International Forum for Nubia, where he is a moderator.
In this chilling post [Ar], on the forum which is now open to members only, Nasr details his arrest:
On his treatment during his detention, Nasr writes:
تغيرت المعاملة بعد ذلك وقام مدير جهاز الامن بالاعتذار بشدة اكثر من مرة وتغيرت معاملته لي حتي لحظة مغادرتي المعتقل ولكنني انسان اولا واخيرا .لا زلت اعاني من ويلات الطريقة التي بها اعتقلت فاسرتي فقدت الامان حيث ان اطفال اخي يعانون من الكوابيس ليلا وتظل الابواب مغلقة ليل نهار وتعاني اسرتي جراء ما حل بهم .وفقدت شخصيا نعمة السمع مما يمنع التواصل بيني وبين اخي مزمل الذي يعاني من فقدان السمع منذ سنوات.
Nasr then details how he was woken up from his sleep by one of 11 men who raided his home:
The men then took him through a few villages, changed cars and stopped to pray. Nasr recalls:
Korea: Blog, Bloggers, and Etiquette.
While bloggers seem to be equally distant from each other, they are in fact not. They have their favorite blogs and bloggers, and they link their blogs to each other. They share their favorite posts from other bloggers with other websites. They leave their opinions on the posts of the bloggers with whom they are close and exchange their thoughts about social and political issues.
A blogger shared her experience with a world famous conductor. By sharing her private conversation, she might have contributed to hurting the celebrity’s reputation. While her post has been spreading over websites quickly and other bloggers put hers in their blog space, many bloggers criticize her. Others say it is the victory of blogging.
Bloggers argue about how far blogs should share information, opinions, and experiences, and a blogger leaves an interesting post, “ Blog, Blogger, Etiquette and gaps between them.”
블로그를 운영을 하면서 느끼는 것이지만 참 예의바른 분들이 많다는 것입니다. 물론 반대로 별별 찌질이 양아치들도 많지만 대체적으로 블로그를 운영하는 분들은 예의바르다고 생각합니다. 물.론. 그것이 블로거로서의 그들과 실존인물로서의 그들 사이의 간격을 생각하지 않고 하는 말입니다.
블로그라는 것은 자신을 나타내는 뭔가라고 생각합니다. 그래서 블로거라면 다들 자신의 블로그를 애지중지 금이야 옥이야 다독다독.. 생각합니다. 그리고 다들 ‘나만은' 소통과 교류에 적극적이고 졸랭 오픈마인드라고 자신합니다. 그래서 다른 블로그에 가서 댓글을 남길 때도 뭔가 어젓한 모습을 보입니다. 디씨나 웃대, 개소문 죽돌이마냥 찌질이식의 글은 많지 않다는 것이죠.1
여기 두 명의 블로거가 있다고 가정합시다. 둘은 서로 상당히 친근한 사이라고 믿습니다. 그리고 서로의 블로그에 방문하며 댓글도 남기고 이런 저런 글들로 교류를 합니다. 그리고 약간의 농담도 합니다. 각자가 들고 있는 친근감의 정도는 같은 크기라고 생각하고 있었습니다.
멀리서 보니 당신과 나는 같은 크기의 친근감을 갖고 있습니다. 맞죠?
그리고 어느 날 A는 B에게 평소보다는 조금 심한 농담을 합니다. A의 입장에서는 자신이 가진 친근감의 정도와 B가 가진 친근감의 정도가 같은 크기라면 이 정도의 농담은 충분히 가능하다고 생각을 했습니다. 그런데 웬 일?!!
아뉘~!! 이 사람이 왜 갑자기 친한 척하시나요? 누구??
A가 생각한 친근감의 크기가 B의 것보다 x만큼 더 컸던겁니다. B는 A에게 말합니다. ‘어머! 누구? 얼마나 친하다고 그런 말씀하세요? 우리가 일면식이라도 있었나요? 직접 만나서 공기놀이라도 했었나요? 왜 갑자기 글케 친한 척 하시나욧!!' 결국 둘 다 같은 크기의 친근감을 가지고 있다고 생각했지만 실제 그것을 재볼 기회가 되자 x만큼의 차이에 마음이 상해버린 것이죠.현실에서도 이런 일은 허다하게 일어납니다. 그리고 오직 글로 만나는 블로거들 간에는 이런 오해는 더 자주 일어날 것 같지만 사실은 그렇지도 않습니다. 그 이유는 서로가 그런 일이 일어날 정도로 다가서질 않기 때문입니다. 그것이 블로거들 간의 예의입니다. 다가서지 않는다는 것.
사실 이런 일은 ‘좋은 관계'를 유지하고 있는 블로거들 사이에 더 빈번합니다. 서로에게 조금이라도 상처를 주지 않을까 극도로 조심하는 것이죠. 물론 이것은 상대방에 대한 존중이요 배려이고 필요한 것이지만 조금은 다가가야할 필요가 있습니다. 서로간의 간격을 좁힌다는 것. 그것은 서로간에 교집합을 만든다는 의미이기도 합니다.
A blog is a means for people to express themselves. Therefore, all bloggers take care of their blogs with their hearts. They are also so confident that they are active in communication with others and they’re so open-minded. So, when they leave their opinions in other bloggers’ posts, they’re polite. They don’t leave weird and crazy writings.
Let’s imagine that there are two bloggers. They believe that they know each other well. They visit the other side’s blog and leave opinions of posts. They exchange their opinions. And they joke around. They think that the extent of familiarity of each other is same.
When they look at each other at this distance, they have the same size of familiarity.
One day, A gave a little strong joke to B. A thinks that this kind of joke is fine due to their familiarity. But….
B responses: Why are you pretending you’re so close to me?
The extent of closeness that A thought was much bigger than that B thought. And B answers A. “Why are you pretending you’re so close to me? Have we met face to face each other? Have we spent our time together? Why are you doing this?” When they face to compare the extent of their closeness, there is the difference of X.
Things are happening all the time in real world. It seems that there could be misunderstanding between bloggers who just meet through writings. The reason is that they don’t try to be close in order to prevent these things happen. This is politeness that bloggers have for each other. Not to be so close.
It is common to bloggers who maintain ‘good relations.’ They are extremely careful in order not to screw their relationships up. Of course it is important in order to keep mutual respect and consideration. But sometimes it is necessary to be close to each other.
To make their distance closer. It means that they build up intersection each other.
Tunisia: Outcry over Italian Court's Verdict on Tunisian Pilots
Two Tunisian pilots of Tuninter Flight 1153, which crash landed in the sea off Sicily in 2005 killing 16 people, were sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Italian court. The decision is being contested by Tunisian bloggers, who say the pilots' heroic efforts in saving the 23 other passengers on board should have been celebrated.
Some thoughts from Tunisia [Ar] smells discrimination in the verdict and writes:
لكن اسمائهم ليست آلان ولا دافيد ولا جون بول بل شفيق الغربي و علي الكبّير لذا فعليهم دفع الثّمن في نظر القضاء الايطالي !! والتّهمة في نظر هذا القضاء المتعسّف هي انّهم لجؤا بسبب خوفهم الشديد بالانشغال بالدعاء والاستغاثة بالله بالدعاء في وقت كان يتعين عليهم فيه القيام بإجرآت الطوارئ لتجنب تحطم طائرتهم حسب ما جاء في تسجيلات غرفة القيادة. وهو عين الافتراء حسب ما تبيّنه تّسجيلات الصندوق الاسود التّي تبيّن ان الطياريين بذلوا ما في وسعهم لانقاذ ما يمكن انقاذه (طلب هليكوبترين، اجراء الهبوط الاضطراري قرب باخرتين لاعطاء فرص نجاة اكبر…) !!
But their names are not Alain, David, nor John Paul. They are named Shafik Al Gharbi and Ali Kbeyer. Therefore, for the Italian justice, they should pay the price!! They have been charged because they opted to pray for God to help them at a time when they had to perform emergency procedures to avoid their plane crash, according to recordings from the cockpit. But these are lies as shown by the black box recordings. Indeed it shows that the two pilots did their best to save what can be saved (they requested two helicopters and conducted an emergency landing near two vessels to give their passengers a greater chance of survival …) .
Articuler [Fr], on his part, echoes a similar sentiment:
Le tribunal italien de Palerme a prononcé lundi 23 mars 2009 son verdict dans l’affaire du crash de l’ATR de la compagnie aérienne tunisienne Tuninter.
Le verdict de la justice italienne a été très sévère et représente une véritable première ! Jamais, par le passé, les responsables administratifs d’une compagnie aérienne n’ont été condamnés à des peines de prison ferme. En prononçant des condamnations allant jusqu’à dix ans de prison, la justice italienne inflige aux responsables tunisiens des peines comme s’ils étaient de véritables chauffards éméchés sur la route. Et encore, on s’interroge si les ivrognes italiens du volant écopent de peines aussi lourdes !
India Elections ‘09: Netizens react to Political Campaigns
With the General Elections round the corner, major political parties like the Indian National Congress (Congress) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have each unleashed their election campaigns on the Indian populace.
The battle for the electorate mind space is being fought relentlessly (by both candidates themselves, their supporters and leaders) on the ground, in the MSM and online. The electorate in turn is watching closely and netizens are animatedly discussing these campaigns threadbare.
In a series of posts, we will explore blogger reactions to the election campaigns of various political parties. In this post, the first in the series, we look at how netizens have reacted to the BJP's Online Campaign.
Drawing inspiration from the recently conducted US Presidential Elections, the BJP has launched multi-pronged online marketing campaigns, through blogs, websites, Social Networking applications such as Facebook, Orkut, YouTube, Twitter and online advertising. On this front, BJP's presence appears to be clearly more visible than competition and has given rise to a lot of discussions and comments.
According to this report, BJP's 'streaming video campaign' was getting ready to be splashed across YouTube, blogs and other Social Networking sites. Blog. Angsuman at Taragana tells us that 5ads promoting Advani are now to be found across 2000 websites.
Arun Subrahmanian is happy to note that in the upcoming elections, political parties are campaigning aggressively online and making use of open source software to do so. He writes in his blog:
The Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, LK Advani has not only created his website and blog but is also marketing his website and blog heavily on the internet through search engine marketing. In the past several week i have seen different advertisements regarding this website online. BJP is actively promoting the website using Google Adwords. Whenever you visit an India related website you will definitely find the advertisement of this website.
The website of L K Advani is using Joomla (Joomla is an open source content management system). It is great to know that Indian political parties are using open source technologies, internet marketing tools for promoting their election campaign.
Screen shot of BJP ad at Sify News, a news portal
The AD Zone remarks:
‘Advani for PM' must be the biggest spending advertising campaign on the Internet today.
Some bloggers however, are finding the splash of ads a wee bit annoying. Gururaj writes:
I wonder how much they spend on adwords each day or maybe an hour. If you are from India, from 2 months you can see only these ads on every blog/site on the internet. They are targeting indian internet users heavily. Personally I do like BJP, but ahem.. these ads are kinda annoying.
Sushant Kumar of Speak India Blog has some issues with the content of the aggressive online marketing of the BJP. Kumar feels that the execution is not very effective as it has some 'serious flaws' . According to him, the ad space should have been better utilised to crisply convey the BJP's election promises and strengths rather than merely pointing the viewer to Advani's website. He says:
The online user is smart and has less time to read long blog entries that too political ones, hence the important points need to be conveyed boldly through the ads itself.
Sidin Vadukut, in a newspaper column writes an open letter to L.K. Advani saying that instead focusing his campaign on negatives, namely ‘name calling and finger pointing' at the Congress, he should use his online campaign to drive home his vision for the country. He writes:
You have an opportunity to finally give Indian the positive approach to debate and politics that we have long missed. And even if you can’t do it nationally, you can do it on your blog. Talk about your hopes and aspirations. About what you will do to make this a better country. Tell us how young people can help you. Convince us of the vision you have for this country. But most of all, Mr Advani, realise that blogs are so 2007. We are all on Twitter now.
Interestingly though, the BJP campaign is very much on Twitter as well, through the official @bjp_, and its supporters such as @missionbjp, @friendsofbjp and @4bjp. The Twitter world is also buzzing with discussion and comments on these election campaigns. Harsha Pramod summarises some of the reactions being tweeted w.r.t the BJP's online marketing blitz.
Many expressed the opinion that BJP’s online advertisements might give over-exposure to the party. “What BJP doesn’t know is that too much communication kills a bad product faster!” says a tweet. “These days I am seeing Mr LK Advani on almost all sites…”, adds another. “Wow BJP is harnessing Google ad words to the hilt - any search for Congress, Rahul Gandhi or related gives you a Google ad on Advani,” says another. Political parties are being promoted on Twitter by unofficial Twitter accounts, much to the dismay of other users. “No politics on twitter ….pls… y do i c (why do I see) BJP & Congress surfacing?” asks another. “Is blog world becoming BJP world?” Exclaims another.
Some other comments from Twitter:
balajil woo amazed at the innovative style of bjp http://lkadvani.in/eng/ , friends of BJP http://friendsofbjp.org/, advani@campus .. This is the way to go :)
abhiramr Wonder how much the BJP has spent on their online Ad campaign.
SatyaVyas getting sick scraps from BJP's online campaign I am sure that 250 crore spent on Advani's campaign are going down the drain..leave me alone.
thecomicproject @nikhilnarayanan INC is woefully behind. BJP is smarter, engaging online, might turn blogs into a counterweight (if light) to MSM
Interestingly though, while there is a lot of noise around online campaigning, some bloggers like Joseph Thomas are sounding a note of caution. For example, Joseph says:
There are a lot of online campaigns going on behalf of several candidates for India general elections in 2009. The whole drama is very interesting. It looks like the campaign officers believe that the online campaign is going to work in India just like it did in USA. Evidently, they have not considered the % of citizens in India who use Internet and what % of it would actually go to the polling booths.
Joseph feels that a mere online blitz without being backed up by a solid on-the-ground campaign will simply not work in a country like ours. He makes a case in point while discussing the Facebook support group for Mallika Sarabhai who is contesting the elections from Gandhinagar in Gujrat, against BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Mr. L.K Advani. He writes:
Then there is Mallika Sarabhai who is contesting against L K Advani from Gandhinagar. I was kind of surprised to see her Facebook support group as I do not understand how it is going to help her win the elections in Gandhinagar. I’m just wondering, how many of the Gandhinagar voters are going to vote for Mallika Sarabhai just because of her online campaigns? How many Netizens are there in her constituency? How are the online campaigns going to work if the on-ground campaigns are not working? So I think she better use her time for on-ground work, encouraging people to vote, convince them of the politics of BJP, and how she can make Gujarat a better place. It just doesn’t matter a person from Thrissur constituency (in Kerala) supporting Mallika Sarabhai to win from Gandhinagar (in Gujrat) through a Facebook group, because it is finally up to the people of Gandhinagar to decide whether she goes into parliament or not.
Watch this space for the next post in the series - blogger reactions to the Congress (INC) campaign.
China and Hong Kong: Can Shanghai be a new international financial center?
On 25 March 2009, Xinhua News reported China’s State Council has endorsed a statement to urge Shanghai to be developed into an international financial center by 2020 in order to keep up with “China’s economic influence and the Chinese yuan’s international status”.
The idea generates discussion in the Beiyouren Forum (http://forum.byr.edu.cn) on which city, among Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong will become China’s international hub. A mainland blogger, luoluokaikai, forwarded a post which states that Shanghai has a great potential to develop China’s financial services,
从外部条件来看，花旗、汇丰、渣打、东方汇理、荷兰银行等１９家外资银行都不约而同地选定其驻上海机构为主报告行。当中国成了世界上主要的资本输出国之一时，上海就会自然成为一个国际金融中心。目前国外看好上海，这是非常可喜的现象。…上海自己的经济实力和她的经济腹地是香港都无法比拟的，这是上海最大的竞争优势。
However, a Hong Kong blogger, lu miguan argues that it is hard for Shanghai to replace Hong Kong status,
上海要做金融中心，到2020年，世事難料，能否真正的「國際」，以現階段的政治環境的話，可能只會做到北亞區或者是中國境內的國際級數。這是因為有兩個核心問題未能解決，就是制度與自由。…當中「政治」就踩中了中共的地雷，所以youtube最近不能夠在內地登陸。如果一個網站都不能夠正常上客任人看，這是一個國際城市嗎?是一個大都會嗎?連觀看的自由也沒有，怎能讓外國人願意走進這個地方做生意呢?
Another Hong Kong blogger, Eyrnnyes also shares similar views,
上海，要成為「真正」的國際金融中心，不在是否齊心，又或是國家政策是否支持，那在於人民幣是否可以自由兌換！一天外資不可把他們在中國資金，自由兌換成本國貨幣或美金，再自由地匯出中國，上海，一天也不可能成為真正的國際金融中心！那更不可能取代香港地位！又正如利世民君和某在香港、國內有頗大的金融生意A君說，一天上海股市，除了熊市、牛市之外，還有一種叫政策市（以前叫朱市，即前總理朱融基市）存在，上海一天也不可能取代香港，成為亞太區的國際金融中心！
Links for Fri, 2009-03
Csíkszereda musings writes about ad breaks on Romanian TV: “In Romania, you can not only go to the toilet, you could run a bath, lie in it for half an hour until the water gets too cold, get out, shave, trim your nose hairs, get dressed, go to the kitchen, cook a large dinner, go out and buy a bottle of wine, invite your friends round, eat the dinner, play scrabble a couple of times, and then clean the house from top to bottom, before settling back down – and you’d still have time to make serious inroads into A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu (to be fair you probably wouldn’t get past the first book of the three, unless you were a really fast reader) before the programme restarts.”
Latvian Abroad cites an example of how “the budget cuts are taking their toll” in Latvia: “Sometimes, it's a very heavy toll.”
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the coverage of Hungary in the U.S. and Canadian media.
Updates on the situation in the Czech Republic following the no-confidence vote - at The Czech Daily Word and A Fistful of Euros.
Repeating Islands Blog pays a visit to Derek Walcott Square in St. Lucia.
Diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp is part of a group that has written an open letter to the Jamaican Prime Minister expressing disappointment over the news “that the 2009 Calabash Festival has been cancelled due to insufficient funding.”
“Will Barbados' proposed housing developments be part of an economic and social package that is geared to give people a better standard of living?”: Living in Barbados questions the wisdom of high-rise developments on the island.
Both Vexed Bermoothes and The Devil Island discuss the Bermudian government's faith-based tourism programme.
Is there room in Canadian literature for a Caribbean voice? Jamaican diaspora author and blogger Pamela Moredecai shares her thoughts…
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