More on Preah Vihear

Just seeing the photo is enough to tell why the Thais want it and why we need to protect it. Below is the list of news, documents and links related to Preah Vihear:
Cambodia's proposal for the inscribtion of Preah Vihear on the World Hertiage List

http://www.pressocm.gov.kh/publishing/Preah%20Vihear_English.pdf
Prasat Preah Vihear overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasat_Preah_Vihear
http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2008/05/23/preah-vihear-an-overview/
Preah Vihear travel guide: http://wikitravel.org/en/Preah_Vihear
International Court of Justice: Case concerning the temple of Preah Vihear
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?sum=284&code=ct&p1=3&p2=3&case=45&k=46&p3=5
Understanding Preah Vihear issue: http://www.mfa.go.th/internet/information/19648.pdf
Preah Vihear News: http://www.preahvihear.com/
Tale of Asia on Preah Vihear: http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-preahvihear.htm
Pilgrimage to PV: http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger/stonesinsky5.html
Gobal Voice on Preah Vihear (comments on Preah Vihear issue)
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/06/24/preah-vihear-belongs-to-cambodia/
Preah Vihear Photos: http://impressive.net/people/gerald/photos/by/location/cambodia/preah%20vihear
News links related to Preah Vihear dispute:
Thailand to co-host bid Preah Vihear listed by Unesco (a new trick)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/280608_News/28Jun2008_news10.php
Thai court nixes temple cooperation
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_Jf2WvfwZyntywvbTXg0VfGEfwwD91J39TO0
Temple tenstion: Kenneth's letter to PP Post (why is Cambodia gov't so stupid)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/200806268841/National-news/Temple-tensions.html
Ancient temple at center of debate in Thailand
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZwfevhsGLvqW-M__bOJ1Psix7swD91HT2H00
The judgement of the World Court, 1962
http://www.bangkokpost.com/250608_News/25Jun2008_news20.php
Abishit: Gov't telling lies ( Leader of gouts)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/250608_News/25Jun2008_news01.php
Win-win temple deal (Cambodia was trapped in fact)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/220608_News/22Jun2008_news08.php
Preah Vihear white paper to be released
http://www.bangkokpost.com/210608_News/21Jun2008_news06.php
Thai rally over temple dispute
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsN2uTPpxoebQhHlznf-JLCQyKvgD91CEF500
Dispute holds up temple listing
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200806/s2273596.htm
Preserve the integrity of Preah Vihear ( a Thai scholar reveals some facts)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/290608_Perspective/29Jun2008_pers001.php
Commentary: Nationalistic puppets (why Thais think they are greatest race in SE)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=128521

Preah Vihear listed as a world heritage

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_re_ca/canada_world_heritage_site_3

Temple issue helps pin Thai stance on colonial map (a big gain for Thais)http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/14/politics/politics_30078015.php

Thai-Cambodian border stand-off continues

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/world/asia/21cambodia.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Cambodia turns down Thai request to review the borderline

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/22/content_8742133.htm

The reasons behind Thai-Cambodian temple dispute

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0722/p06s02-wosc.html

Dealing with stress on the job

Today job stress poses a threat to the health of workers and, in turn, to the health of organizations. Short-lived or infrequent episodes of stress pose little risk, but when stressful situations persist and remain unresolved, the body is kept in a constant state of activation, creating increased wear and tear to biological systems. Ultimately, fatigue or damage results, and the risk of injury or serious disease can escalate.
Job stress can be caused by a number of conditions. These include corporate culture, interpersonal relationships, roles and responsibilities on the job, how work tasks are designed, career concerns, and environmental conditions. If your workplace seems stressful, you can try to reduce it by considering the following:
• Ensure that the workload is in line with workers’ capabilities and resources.
• Design jobs to provide meaning, stimulation, and opportunities for workers to use their skills.
• Clearly define workers’ roles and responsibilities and provide opportunities to participate in decisions and actions affecting their jobs.
• Improve communications and reduce uncertainty about career development and future employment prospects.
• Provide opportunities for social interaction.
• Establish work schedules compatible with demands and responsibilities outside the job.
• Identify and promote strategies for employees to use to reduce stress day to day. These include recognizing the symptoms of stress, exercising, eating right and getting enough rest, learning and practicing relaxation techniques, talking things out with someone, and having a good laugh.
Being vigilant and paying attention to individuals and the environment can help you create a healthy workplace.

The key to marketing any product

By Marilyn J. Holt, CEO of Holt Capital

Whether you are marketing an existing or introducing a new product, you need to present the "whole product," not just the primary offering. Marketing the whole product is not just about creating a new gadget or service, but also about presenting everything to buyers that is necessary to define, support, and drive them to take action.
You are well on your way to delivering the whole product to customers if you can answer the basics to some of these questions:
• Who is your primary buyer and why?
• What are the top three "Why to buy?" messages that you want to deliver to the market?
• What are the top three to five features you want to emphasize and why?
• What is the differentiation positioning of your offering?
• How does your product compete and compare against other offerings in the marketplace?
• How is your company going to support the product?
• What is your company's discount structure for multiple purchases?
• What is your return or cancellation policy?
• Is the offering itself or the services around the offering more important?
• Finally, if you were to buy this offering from a competitor, what questions would you want to have answered before you paid good money for it?

Lake Tōya: 2008 G8 Summit Venue

The picturesque lake was chosen as the location of the the G8 summit which Japan will host from July 7-9, 2008. The leaders of the world's eight major industrialized nations will meet at Windsor Hotel Toya Resort & Spa overlooking lake Toya (the pic). The lack attracts more than 4 million tourists a year.

Lake Tōya (洞爺湖, Tōya-ko) is a volcanic caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, Abuta District, Hokkaidō, Japan. The stratovolcano of Mount Usu lies on the southern rim of the caldera. It is a nearly circular lake with 10 kilometers diameter in east-west direction and 9km in north-south direction. The main town is Tōyako Onsen, on the western shore.
Lake Tōya is said to be the northernmost lake in Japan that never ices due to thermal activity in the area, and the second most transparent lake in Japan. Nakano-shima, an island in the middle of the lake, houses the Tōya Lake Forest Museum.

Click on the title link to view travel and sightseeing inf.

G8 Toyako summit special reports: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/G8_summit_2008.html

Tibet Railway (Part 1)

One of human greatest achievements ever made! It seems that riding the train itself is a great pleasure given the stunning scenery across diverse landscape from Shanghai to the top of the world. Men could make anything possible; it is just the matter of time.

Inflation in emerging economies: An old enemy rears its head

Emerging economies risk repeating the same mistakes the developed world made in the inflationary 1970s

There are an alarming number of similarities between developing economies today and developed economies in the early 1970s.

Inflation in developing countries are in deed more serious, as official figures often understate their inflationary pressure. Widespread government subsidies and price controls are one reason, and price indices are often skewed by a lack of data or government cheating.

The recent jump has been caused mainly by surging oil and food prices and speculation.

Governments have responded with more price controls and export bans. In the short run such measures may help to cap inflation and avoid social unrest, but in the long run they do more harm than good.

Some central banks have nudged up interest rates this year, but they have not kept pace with inflation, so real rates have fallen and are now negative in most countries. Many policymakers in emerging economies argue that serious monetary tightening is not warranted: higher inflation is due solely to spikes in food and energy prices, caused by temporary supply shocks and speculation.

The synchronised jump in global food prices suggests there is more to the story than disruptions to supply. Prices are also rising partly because loose monetary conditions in emerging economies have boosted domestic demand.

Another reason why central banks cannot ignore agflation is that it can quickly spill over into other prices. Food accounts for 30-40% of the consumer-price index in most emerging economies, compared with only 15% in the G7 economies.

Philip Poole, also of HSBC, says that many emerging economies have run out of spare capacity because investment has not kept pace with economic growth. Hence firms are more likely to pass on cost increases.

In another echo, those central banks often face intense political pressure to hold rates low to boost growth and jobs. To many Western economists and policymakers the solution is simple: emerging economies should allow more flexibility in their exchange rates. This would permit them to raise interest rates, and a stronger currency would help to curb import prices. Another solution is to tighten fiscal policy to reduce excess demand.

China has helped to hold down inflation in developed economies because its goods are much cheaper, replacing more costly goods. Competition from China also forces local producers to cut their prices and it curbs wage demands in rich countries. As China moves up the value chain it will pull down the prices of a wider range of products. China will continue to help hold down global prices—although possibly by less than in the past.

Short Classic Jokes

1. The patient says, "Give me the bad news first!"Doctor replies, "You've got AIDS.""Oh, no! What could be worse than that?" asks the patient."You've also got Alzheimer's Disease."Looking relieved the patient says, "Oh...Well, that's not so bad. At least I don't have AIDS."
2. The teacher of the Earth Science class was lecturing on map reading. He spent the class explaining about latitude, longitude, degrees, and minutes. Towards the end of class, the teacher asked his students, "Suppose I asked you to meet me for lunch at 23 degrees, 4 minutes north latitude and 45 degrees, 15 minutes east longitude..." A student's voice broke the confused silence, and volunteered, "I guess you'd be eating alone, sir."
3. A man is walking down the street and he sees a boy riding a wagon. The boy has his dog pulling it with a rope attached to the dogs balls. The man says "You know if you tied it around his neck, it would go faster." The boy replies, "I know but then I wouldn't get the cool siren."
4. A young couple gets married, and the groom asks his bride if he can have a dresser drawer of his own that she will never open. The bride agrees. After 30 years of marriage, she notices that his drawer has been left open. She peeks inside and sees 3 golf balls and $1,000.She confronts her husband and asks for an explanation. He explains "Every time I was unfaithful to you, I put a golf ball in the drawer." She figures 3 times in 30 years isn't bad and asks "But what about the $1,000?" He replied "Whenever I got a dozen golf balls, I sold them."
5. One day a girl brings home her boyfriend and tells her father she wants to marry him. After talking to him for while, he tells his daughter she can't do it because he's her half brother. The same problem happens again four more times! The girl starts to get pissed off. She goes to her mom and says, "Mom... What have you been doing all your life? Dad's been going around laying every maiden in the town and now I can't marry any of the five guys I like because they have turned out to be my half brothers!!!"
   Her mom replies, "Don't worry darling, you can marry any one of them you want, he isn't really your dad."

Useful dos and don’ts for fast economic growth

Growth is not everything, but it is the foundation for everything. The poorer the country the more important growth becomes, partly because it is impossible to redistribute nothing and partly because higher incomes make a huge difference to the welfare of the poorest.

Based on an analysis of 13 countries that have managed growth of 7 per cent a year over at least 25 years in the recently published Growth Report, countries enjoy high growth share five points of resemblance: they fully exploited the opportunities afforded by the world economy; they maintained macroeconomic stability; they sustained high rates of saving and investment; they let markets allocate resources; and they had committed, credible and capable governments.

These points are consistent with the so-called “Washington consensus” of the 1990s, which emphasised macroeconomic stability, trade and the market. Yet the report’s emphasis is different: it does not stress privatisation, free markets and free trade, while it does emphasise the role of the so-called “developmental state”.

The ingredients of fast growth include: investment of at least 25 per cent of gross domestic product, predominantly financed by domestic savings, including investment of some 5-7 per cent of GDP in infrastructure; and spending by private and public sectors of another 7-8 per cent of GDP on education, training and health. They also include: inward technology transfer, facilitated by exploitation of opportunities for trade and inward foreign direct investment; acceptance of competition, structural change and urbanisation; competitive labour markets, at least at the margin; the need to bring environmental protection into development from the beginning; and equality of opportunity, particularly for women.

Particularly welcome is the short list of policies to be avoided. Among them are: subsidising energy; using the civil service as employer of last resort; reducing fiscal deficits by cutting spending on infrastructure; providing open-ended protection to specific sectors; using price controls as a way to curb inflation; banning exports, to keep domestic prices low; underinvesting in urban infrastructure; underpaying public servants, such as teachers; and allowing the exchange rate to appreciate too far, too quickly.

Running through the report is belief in the role of an engaged government. This reflects the commission’s composition and intended audience. The obvious weakness is that it ignores how effective governments emerge. But the stress is correct: rapid development occurs in strong states, with effective governments, not in weak ones.