Why Haiti Remains Poor - the Root

By: Yves Savain

Posted: January 13, 2011 at 12:10 AM

A revolt of young Haitian intellectuals 65 years ago inadvertently opened the door for a black nationalist ideology that continues to dominate -- and hold back -- Haiti.

This photograph from early 1946 is a rare record of a gathering of the intellectual vanguard of Haiti's postwar generation. Fiercely idealistic, they had weeks earlier incited five days of massive street protests that caused Haitian President Elie Lescot to resign and flee into exile. They had overthrown, they believed, the cabal of mulattoes and U.S. bureaucrats who had been denying them their rightful share of power, and put on notice the small commercial-and-industrial sector dominated by Arabs, Europeans and a few U.S. immigrants.
But instead of the leftist democracy they hoped for, their moment of change ushered in a doctrinaire black nationalist political force that has ruled Haiti for more than six decades -- including 30 years of Duvalier dictatorship. An important reason that Haiti remains poor is the stranglehold of a pernicious ethnic provincialism that now permeates all sectors of society. It is a mentality allergic to talent and merit and, today especially, fearful of the vast, wealthy and well-educated Haitian diaspora.

Aging China offers silver lining for investors

By Jane Lanhee Lee and Lucy Hornby
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Retired professor Chen Chongyu and his wife Liu Zhenjuan dreamed of coming back to China from their daughter's home in France, but until last year the couple had nowhere to go.
That changed when they found Cherish-Yearn, an upscale retirement community on the fringes of Shanghai and a pioneer in catering to China's prosperous elderly.
Businesses are just starting to tap the rapidly expanding senior citizens' market -- China's new silver industry.
"Every year we would come back to China, and we would visit retirement homes. But we couldn't find anything," said 79-year-old Chen, a history professor who specialized in the French revolution.
"When we finally found this place we felt we could return."
China's traditional model of children living with their elderly parents is under siege, thanks to 30 years of the one-child policy and rapid urban migration.
Leaving their daughter's home in France, Liu, 74, and Chong paid 690,000 yuan (US$104,545) to move into a three-room apartment on Cherish-Yearn's beautifully sculpted campus.
An annual fee of 88,000 yuan covers basic medical and cleaning services, and various activities.
China had 169 million people over 60 by the end of 2009, or 12 percent of the population. That number will jump to 250 million people by 2025.

China's Research Culture - Science Magazine, Editorial

 

Science 3 September 2010:
Vol. 329 no. 5996 p. 1128
DOI: 10.1126/science.1196916

 

Government research funds in China have been growing at an annual rate of more than 20%, exceeding even the expectations of China's most enthusiastic scientists. In theory, this could allow China to make truly outstanding progress in science and research, complementing the nation's economic success. In reality, however, rampant problems in research funding—some attributable to the system and others cultural—are slowing down China's potential pace of innovation.

Although scientific merit may still be the key to the success of smaller research grants, such as those from China's National Natural Science Foundation, it is much less relevant for the megaproject grants from various government funding agencies, which range from tens to hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan (7 yuan equals approximately 1 U.S. dollar).

Defying Critics, China’s Science Ministry Defends Research Culture

In a 3 September editorial in Science, two prominent Chinese scientists alleged that China’s mega-science funding system is corrupt and antithetical to innovation. The Chinese scientific establishment has at last issued a public response. On Monday, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) issued a sharp rebuttal that claims the editorial’s assertions “are contrary to facts” and highlights a slew of recent Chinese-born S&T advances.
In the editorial, Shi Yigong, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Rao Yi, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University in Beijing, singled out for criticism the funding mechanism for mega science projects in China, alleging that to procure grants, “it’s an open secret that doing good research is not as important as schmoozing with powerful bureaucrats and their favorite experts.” They said a societal dependence on interpersonal connections instead of rules for conducting business is partly to blame and called for the creation of a “healthy research culture” such that “new funds are distributed based on merit.”
The editorial caused a big stir in China and even came to the attention of Premier Wen Jiabao,

Avoiding a U.S.-China cold war - WaPo

Avoiding a U.S.-China cold war
By Henry A. Kissinger
Friday, January 14, 2011;

The upcoming summit between the American and Chinese presidents is to take place while progress is being made in resolving many of the issues before them, and a positive communique is probable. Yet both leaders also face an opinion among elites in their countries emphasizing conflict rather than cooperation.

Most Chinese I encounter outside of government, and some in government, seem convinced that the United States seeks to contain China and to constrict its rise. American strategic thinkers are calling attention to China's increasing global economic reach and the growing capability of its military forces.
Care must be taken lest both sides analyze themselves into self-fulfilling prophecies. The nature of globalization and the reach of modern technology oblige the United States and China to interact around the world. A Cold War between them would bring about an international choosing of sides, spreading disputes into internal politics of every region at a time when issues such as nuclear proliferation, the environment, energy and climate require a comprehensive global solution.

Political reform: China's next modernization? - WaPo

Political reform: China's next modernization?
By Daniel Twining
Thursday, January 13, 2011;

China boasts the world's second-largest economy, delivering double-digit economic growth on a seemingly permanent basis. It pursues the world's most ambitious program of military modernization, emphasizing the projection of power beyond its borders. It is the planet's biggest steel producer, car market, commodity consumer and exporter. As President Hu Jintao prepares to visit Washington next week, his country's model of authoritarian development looks unstoppable - with troubling implications for American primacy in world affairs.

Yet China may soon bump up against the model's limitations. An aging demographic profile means the population's share of prime workers has already peaked. Resource constraints and environmental devastation will increasingly complicate economic development. Worried neighbors across Asia are moving closer to America and each other, challenging China's room to maneuver in its region.

Who Wins If Fewer Foreign Grad Students Come to U.S.? ScienceInsider

Who Wins If Fewer Foreign Grad Students Come to U.S.? by Jeffrey Mervis on 7 January 2011

What will happen to U.S. universities if the flood of foreign graduate students becomes a trickle? And if they stopped coming, would it mean that other nations can now match the quality of U.S. institutions, which provides the basis for U.S. preeminence in science?
The new director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Subra Suresh, took a shot at answering those questions today in a presentation to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). And while Suresh admits his informal survey of mobility patterns in his native India is not up to the rigorous standards that NSF would demand of its grantees, he says the results suggest "the beginning of a potentially rapid shift" of talent, with a possible "huge" impact on the U.S. scientific enterprise.

Patching up our alliance with Japan - WaPo

Patching up our alliance with Japan
By Fred Hiatt
Monday, January 10, 2011;

When the Obama administration first looked to Asia, China was the grand opportunity. Korea was a problem to be managed, and Japan, at best, a declining ally you could take for granted.

Two years in, South Korea is, improbably, President Obama's best friend in Asia. China is a disappointment. And Japan has cycled from afterthought to headache to, at least potentially, useful ally again.

The relationship "became shaky for a moment," Japan's foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, told me during an interview last week. But "we have been working hard to restore" an alliance which, he said, "is of extreme importance."

Maehara, 48, is a telegenic and popular politician, a possible future prime minister, who has spoken with unusual candor since becoming foreign minister in September. Shortly after assuming office, he asked how a nation can defend its interests abroad when the home front is "marked by a shrinking population, a declining birthrate, an aging society and a massive fiscal deficit." Last week he added another challenge: "young Japanese, who have become inward looking these days."

A chilling tale of justice in Russia - WaPo

A chilling tale of justice in Russia
By Kathy Lally
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 9, 2011; 7:47 PM

When Russia's robber barons emerged in the mid 1990s, buying up the property of the former Soviet Union and making themselves billionaires many times over, the panorama of intrigue, profiteering and improbable communism-to-capitalism conversion captivated Cathryn Collins, far away in the world of New York design.

Those implausible post-Cold War developments would transform not only Russia but also Collins, who became a director and producer so she could tell that story, settling on the life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky as her vehicle.
After the oil tycoon was convicted of tax evasion in 2005 and his company, Yukos, was dismantled and taken over by the state under President Vladimir Putin, she had her narrative arc:
The dissolution of the Soviet Union yields to unbridled capitalism and new freedoms before the state once again consolidates its control over people and property.

Collins calls her film "Vlast," which means power but also is how Russians refer to their rulers, freighted with an aggressive and slightly ominous overtone. The documentary, which already has been shown at several film festivals, opens with the events of October 2003, when rough-looking agents seize Khodorkovsky from his private plane and push him into a white van on a dark Siberian night.