daryldean.com

In the news lately there’s been a lot of coverage of “fake” products coming from China. First it was fake mobile phone batteries that can explode, then melamine (used to make plastics and fertiliser) in the dog food, then it was ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) in toothpaste. Now we hear about Chinese companies even cheating each other by supplying fake coal fly ash for use in concrete.

For those who don’t know, fly ash is produced when you burn coal. There are different parts to the ash and slag produced, and the fly ash is the part of the ash that floats up the flue (chimney) with the exhaust gases. And, apparently, it’s cheaper to make fake fly ash than it is to collect the real stuff. No country in the World uses all the fly ash it produces. The mind boggles.

Shit, it sounds like these guys should be running Pan Pharmaceuticals.

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It seems that the advertising industry in Lebanon has taken it upon itself to try and make Lebanon, and thus the World, a better place. There are currently campaigns running such as “When Will I Be Lebanese” which takes aim at sectarianism. (Why should you care what religion you are, you’re Lebanese.)

The best example I have seen of this rise in patriotic (jingoistic?) advertising is this one. It was done for free by the Beirut branches of H&C Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. They donated their time for free. Everyone involved in the project donated their time and equipment for free. And it is being aired right now on Lebanese television for free.

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Let there be no doubt - if there ever was any - Russia is on a backward slide. Maybe not to communism, but certainly to totalitarianism. Every day that passes sees President Putin further consolidate his power and his grip over The Russian Federation.

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Well, the US has started to make some more public pronouncements about China’s military capability, and how they see it expanding in years to come.

Truly, China is shaping up to be the next Superpower. What this should mean to all of us is that we are on the cusp of another arms race with a Communist country that is bent on our destuction - or at least our assimilation. And I’ll tell you why this arms race is going to be different from anything we’ve seen before.

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So, it seems the Mighty United States is getting closer and closer to admitting failure in Iraq. As one of the very many that was duped into believing it was a good war to fight, I suppose there is a part of me that feels like gloating it over Dubya. Not just Dubya, but Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz as well. But I can’t do that.

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day here in Australia, so perhaps it is a time for reflection.

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I don’t need any more convincing. Iran seems to have decided that it wants a showdown with the West, and it wants it sooner rather than later.

By “showdown”, I don’t mean a war - though that may eventuate - but I believe they really do want to see how far the West can be pushed before we threaten and/or use force.

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Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. These are the things that occupy the mind of whoever it is that might be driving US foreign policy. (It certainly isn’t Dubya.)

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Here are some things that I think really will happen this year. Yep, really. If you don’t believe me, come back in a year and see how much I get right:

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The “I Have a Dream” speech is known by many for a couple of small pieces of it.

Witness here a man in his prime, delivering what is doubtless one of the greatest speeches of all time.

What troubles me the most about it is that this was in 1963…and more than 40 years on much of what he is railing against is still true.

Well, over the weekend Saddam Hussein came to the end of his rope. Literally. If you’re not too squeamish and haven’t seen the unofficial mobile phone footage of the event, I would recommend it. You can see it, among other places, at saddam.com.

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