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So, some bullshit is happening now, and all of it is related to the reproductive health bill one way or another. 1. The administration currently stands behind the cybercrime bill's libel law, saying "no freedom is absolute." I'm worried that it may have to go all the way to the Supreme Court before they don't strike it down. 2. The RH bill is apparently being watered down "to appease the Catholic bishops." They're not even trying to hide it any more. I don't know what changes they're making yet as I'm only hearing about this now but I'm already ticked off. 3. A priest in Cebu was suspended by the Vatican for ivory trafficking and child rape. My feelings about the Vatican's slap on the wrist aside, I'm pissed that some bishops and priests are seizing this opportunity to say that the people who got him suspended are the ones with malicious intent--apparently, it's all part of the administration's attempt to discredit the Church and pass the RH bill.
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Sep 28, 2012 13:06
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Senator Guingona has already filed a petition before the Supreme Court. He was one of the original senators against the cybercrime law so no surprises there. What's hilarious is how the rest of the senators are backpedaling because of the outcry against it. Senator Escudero is saying that they now recognize and acknowledge the mistake, that the libel parts got in there because of a "personal oversight". That he did not see or appreciate its implications. Sotto is standing his ground while his buddy Angara is just shrugging and keeping quiet. Okay, so not only are they petty idiots they're illiterate too. I'm surprised how the online protests got their attention though. I really thought they'd just ignore them.
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Sep 29, 2012 06:44
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The Cybercrime bill is getting to be a thing now, especially after the Philippine National Police's Facebook account started acting exactly like what people were afraid of: (this was their response to a guy who commented on their Facebook page) They're not even ashamed of it. Even The Pirate Bay is eager to support the fight against this thing now; they put up a big banner on their front page.
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Oct 1, 2012 09:58
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Just out of curiosity, what does the comment they're referring to say? Google Translate doesn't work on it.
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Oct 1, 2012 11:11
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"It's easier for the police to extort tourists if they know English." (on an article about the poor English skills of Filipino criminology students) Google Translate is probably not working because Filipinos love abbreviating. Edit: On a somewhat unrelated note, our president just unveiled his party's lineup for the 2013 senate elections. I'm not too familiar with most of these people, but 8 of the 12 are close relatives or spouses of current politicians (one is actually the president's uncle), plus the daughter of action movie star/failed president Fernando Poe Jr, then Antonio Trillanes--the guy who tried to do that coup at that hotel a few years ago--and two others. I guess we really can't expect much better. Argue fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 12:04
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It sounds like the Philippines "cyber crimes" unit needs to learn from the Thais and put the person on an immigration/id watchlist. So next time their name comes up on the computer they can surprise detain the person and beat them in a dark cell somewhere before putting them in front of a kangaroo court with trumped up charges. edit: Unfortunately, it's also not surprising to find out that the U.S. state dept helps countries like this oppress their own people with state of the art training. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 15:48
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Law goes into effect on the 3rd of October. I'm doing my best to get into trouble to see if they'll actually make an example of me.
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Oct 1, 2012 18:44
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Cambodia former king Norodom Sihanouk dies aged 89quote:Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian king who was a key figure through decades of upheaval, has died. More in the article. I think this was expected for a while now, he hasn't been in particularly good health the last few years. Interesting seeing some of the reactions this morning though. Most comments are the usual condolences, but a lot of people are still criticising him for his initial alignment with the Khmer Rouge. Also no one can seem to decide whether he was 89 or 90.
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Oct 15, 2012 06:09
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Yeah, the controversy over the guy is interesting. My mother of all people shrivels up her face when he's mentioned based on his reputation at the time. My younger reading of history has him as a canny politician trying to create a post-colonial state, caught between 2-3 giant powers and a bevy of regional puppets. I don't know what more he could've done given the geography and weakness of his nascent country.
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Oct 15, 2012 12:39
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I don't know if it was a matter of "toe the line and don't say anything controversial" as is the Asian Way, but most Cambodians I knew still loved him despite his faults. Lots of R.I.P. comments on facebook, some have turned their profile pictures black in mourning, etc.
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Oct 15, 2012 13:09
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Yeah there does seem to be a lot of genuine love for the monarchy here. Makes me wonder about the rumours that Hun Sen wants to abolish it, not sure how that would go down with the people. I actually feel kinda bad for Sihamoni, he seems like a genuinely decent guy.ReindeerF posted:Yeah, the controversy over the guy is interesting. My mother of all people shrivels up her face when he's mentioned based on his reputation at the time. My younger reading of history has him as a canny politician trying to create a post-colonial state, caught between 2-3 giant powers and a bevy of regional puppets. I don't know what more he could've done given the geography and weakness of his nascent country. He was definitely in a difficult position, and while he did switch between a few allegiances, he arguably did it for the sake of the country. I think the Khmer Rouge criticism can be a bit harsh, I doubt he could have foreseen what happened after they came into power.
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Oct 15, 2012 14:05
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Btw, since we have a couple of Philippines based people. What the reaction been to the deal with the Muslim separatists over there?
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Oct 15, 2012 14:21
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Tytan posted:Yeah there does seem to be a lot of genuine love for the monarchy here. Makes me wonder about the rumours that Hun Sen wants to abolish it, not sure how that would go down with the people. I actually feel kinda bad for Sihamoni, he seems like a genuinely decent guy. He really is. I got to meet him and when he was thanking us for our service to the people of Cambodia the dude was just so soft spoken and warm I just wanted to hug him. It sounded like he even got a little choked up at one point. Really a very nice dude.
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Oct 15, 2012 18:25
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Haha that's awesome, glad to hear he's as nice as he comes across. He definitely has a lot of love for the country, it's a shame he's not in a great position right now. While it's a little overblown, this article from last year gives a general overview of his current situation for anyone who's interested.
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Oct 16, 2012 09:03
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Munin posted:Btw, since we have a couple of Philippines based people. What the reaction been to the deal with the Muslim separatists over there? The newspapers are talking about feelings of hope and tears of joy but the general atmosphere is really one of distrust and confusion. No one I've talked to thinks that the Bangsamoro deal will amount to anything especially with all the hostility between the various Islamic breakaway groups. Some think it's a ploy by Malaysia to get Sabah and that Bangsamoro will eventually secede to Malaysia too. Some are bracing for an atrocity even worse than the Ampatuan Massacre. I'm in Manila though so I don't know how folks further south feel about it.
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Oct 18, 2012 03:21
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Absolutely flabbergasted over Hun Sen's gall here; I had no idea Cambodia was in the running for a seat on the Security Council(long shot or no). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/opinion/cambodias-brazen-un-bid.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0 I'm wildly curious what will happen to Cambodia when that corrupt S.O.B. kicks the bucket. It's a shame he isn't a bit older; he could easily be around for a long time yet.
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Oct 18, 2012 03:36
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Not sure anything Hun Sen does surprises me any more. Isn't he basically grooming his son as his successor? Although I'm not sure it matters much at the moment, since the guy wants to rule until he's like 80.
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Oct 18, 2012 12:40
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kazakirinyancat posted:Some think it's a ploy by Malaysia to get Sabah and that Bangsamoro will eventually secede to Malaysia too. Some are bracing for an atrocity even worse than the Ampatuan Massacre.
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Oct 21, 2012 00:47
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Section 31 posted:Is Malaysia really responsible and to be blamed for the armed movements in southern Philippines? That sounds like a wild and paranoid conspiracy theory... Certainly not but some folks here think that they wouldn't say no to supporting them in exchange for the resources that can be had in Mindanao. Personally, I think it's exactly what you said. A wild and paranoid conspiracy theory. On the subject of our Cyber Crime Law: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/292664/cagayan-anti-mining-leader-arrested-over-facebook-post Even though that law was already suspended by the supreme court. Christ, it's exactly as everyone feared. People with money and power using it to harass everyone else. Edit: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/293208/misuari-mnlf-keeping-options-for-armed-struggle-open http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/293328/clan-feud-behind-clash-with-biff-says-milf They've started shooting at each other! It hasn't even been a week! kazakirinyancat fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 21, 2012 17:43
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Indonesian goon reporting in. So, uh, the country is pretty huge, I don't know where to start.
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Oct 22, 2012 15:22
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wid posted:Indonesian goon reporting in. A good place to start is sharing something which is hitting the headlines locally and give some context around it and how you/your acquantainces as people living there perceive it. And thanks for the Philippines replies kazakirinyancat.
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Oct 22, 2012 15:47
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Munin posted:A good place to start is sharing something which is hitting the headlines locally and give some context around it and how you/your acquantainces as people living there perceive it. Indonesia is a large-rear end country, number 4 in the world in population. The country is mostly water, making us the most tropical country in the world. No one really care about the country though, other than the fact that Bali is one of the islands here. There are hundreds of different ethnicity. I'm not exaggerating. The difference in cultures within the country is enormous, with everyone having their own indigenous languages, traditional clothes and even belief system. It's like a mish mash of different countries (which it is). Nobody really cares about East Timor since the overall population was shut out of any news from there during the Suharto regime. Things have changed since Suharto's regime. There's less monopoly in business, less repression of the populace and the press and the military is not out to beat up anyone looking at them funny. The government is much less tyrannical. The downside to this is the crazies crawled out of their holes and we got our own homegrown terrorists, though the ideology was mostly imported from Malaysian crazies who ran off to avoid capture. It's sadly funny how our laws against terrorism is less aggressive than Malaysia's, when our terrorists killed several hundred people already. There are concerned of radicalization of Islam in Indonesia. The majority of the population are moderates, meaning they don't dress like Arabs all the time. But there are growing minorities growing their beard and making their women wear burqas instead of just hijabs. Biggest news in recent months: There's a superbody institution in Indonesia right now called the KPK, the Committee of Corruption Eradication. They have existed for several years and managed to snag high profile corruption cases. Their status is actually still in dispute since they appear to have some powers of the police and national prosecutors. This might sound alarming but so far, they appear to be the only government institution capable of actually getting results. The police and the court of law (and everything else) is INCREDIBLY corrupt here. So the KPK is the only champion the people have left over corrupt officials. A month ago they snagged a very high profile corruption case involving the police department over traffic and could implicate the head of this department Indonesian police is run closer to the military and controlled by a central headquarter and not district or province based. The case is rumored to implicate the head honcho of the entire national police. The police raided KPK's office, took custody one of its officers who was investigating the case using some bullshit charges and took back all of their investigators and support previously lent (required by law) to the KPK. They're now fighting it in court over who gets to handle the case: KPK to investigate the police or the police to investigate themselves. It's clear as day the police is dirty. Any 3 year old Indonesian knows this. The problem now is how the police no longer cares about their image since their big chief could get under attack. It's no riot on the streets but the case is blowing the gasket over how grey and imprecise the law in Indonesia is. On the better news, Jakarta, the most messed up giant city in the country, got themselves a new governor. The previous governor was noneffective and more concerned in piling up money than actually running the city. The new guy, an upstart mayor or a small town, managed to turn his small town into awesome and winning awards. This is unprecedented, where the incumbent got the support of the biggest political parties (70%-80% of the seats in congress) while the new guy is independent and supported partially by political parties. It's the first time in Indonesian politics where political support meant nothing and good track record and governing skills are more important. The incumbent tried everything: throwing money at voters and even tried ti incite racial protests since the new guy's running mate is of Chinese descent and a Christian. Nothing worked and instead anything they did got mocked in social media. When the new guy won, the entire country was watching and it felt like when Obama won. We're hoping he could actually fix things and not be another Obama.
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Oct 23, 2012 06:49
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wid posted:On the better news, Jakarta, the most messed up giant city in the country, got themselves a new governor. The previous governor was noneffective and more concerned in piling up money than actually running the city. The new guy, an upstart mayor or a small town, managed to turn his small town into awesome and winning awards. This is unprecedented, where the incumbent got the support of the biggest political parties (70%-80% of the seats in congress) while the new guy is independent and supported partially by political parties. It's the first time in Indonesian politics where political support meant nothing and good track record and governing skills are more important. The incumbent tried everything: throwing money at voters and even tried ti incite racial protests since the new guy's running mate is of Chinese descent and a Christian. Nothing worked and instead anything they did got mocked in social media. When the new guy won, the entire country was watching and it felt like when Obama won. We're hoping he could actually fix things and not be another Obama. Someday I hope this happens in the Philippines too. On that note, I've been looking to migrate somewhere where my future kids won't have to deal with the local bullshit. I know Filipinos are all over the place so what do you guys think about them? edit: I look Chinese rather than Filipino and the anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia makes me nervous kazakirinyancat fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 08:27
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What do you make of the candidates for the 2014 presidential election? It is very early but are there any reformist candidates looking to shake things up?kazakirinyancat posted:Someday I hope this happens in the Philippines too. But if you have money and are just looking for the stable, safe lifestyle you can't really look further than Singapore. It's a tiny Chinese paradise in Southeast Asia. There's also a substantial Filipino population here.
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Oct 23, 2012 09:35
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wid posted:Great post On the topic of the radicals and terrorists, my understanding was that the rehabilitation program instituted under SBY is considered a model for the world in terms of de-radicalizing and re-integrating people into society. Of course the things I've read are largely from Western media, so I don't know if they're really accurate. Does that mesh with your sentiments above well? Or am I misunderstanding things?
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Oct 23, 2012 09:53
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A friend of mine who lives part-time in Vientiane posted an email to a bunch of us discussing the Chinese colonization there and included a link to a good story on the topic. I thought I'd re-post it here: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2012/10/17/don-chan-once-were-tomatoes/ quote:Don Chan: once were tomatoes 1) By what method are people recruited to do this and what's that like? 2) What the Hell are these tens of thousands of Chinese going to do in Laos?
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Oct 23, 2012 09:58
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What will be the chinese response be to the inevitable blowback for thier colonialist actions?
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Oct 23, 2012 15:09
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The response of China, the country, seems to be indifference if Africa's any indication. They're making deals with local bigwigs for access to natural resources, land, transit routes and so on, so as long as the local government gives them what they want they don't seem to care what the local population wants or what happens to their citizens. So, pretty much like any realpolitik superpower playing in their backyard, heh. The problem they seemingly have is one that, if you start talking about it, makes you sound a lot like someone paraphrasing one of those Malaysian anti-semitic books you see at the airport in KL, heh. The nice way of saying it is that they have a stereotyped reputation for working people very hard, making money and not spreading it around in the community and not integrating well with host cultures. To use a current and extreme example, just this last week a Chinese factory boss in Phnom Penh was fired and arrested and is set to stand trial for tearing up a picture of the recently deceased King Sihanouk while screaming at her workers for being lazy. This is sort of stereotype behavior for first generation Chinese business owner, whether accurate or not. The surprising part is that there were repercussions. Anyway, I still can't figure out if the government's trying to re-settle their rural population as a way to ameliorate the separate-but-equal social problem they have or whether this is all just happening ad hoc through individual actors.
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Oct 23, 2012 15:28
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kazakirinyancat posted:Someday I hope this happens in the Philippines too. Indonesians have ZERO opinions on Filipinos. The only thing I've heard people talk about Filipinos were jokes the older folks told about Marcos and his wife. Other than that, it's almost no one talks about the country. The anti-Chinese sentiments were largely fabricated and encouraged by Suharto's regime to keep the Chinese population, and his rich cronies, under control. There's little left of that nowadays. There's racism still, it's expected, but the general public now thinks the biggest douchebags are the ones in congress. The public pretty much despised anyone in government, congress and any governmental institutions except for the current president. Some places are better for Chinese descent. I was born and raised in Bali and of Chinese descent. It's not as rough here since Balinese themselves are a minority. South Sumatra is also said to be friendly to Chinese. They despise the Javanese though, especially Madurans. But nobody likes Madurans. Not even Madurans. Vegetable posted:What do you make of the candidates for the 2014 presidential election? It is very early but are there any reformist candidates looking to shake things up? There's no good candidate for 2014. The only strong (out of a group of weak douchebags) is Prabowo, who had ties with Suharto's regime as he was Suharto's son-in-law. He seems capable though as he held high military rankings before. But he's still scummy. If Yudoyhono the current president ran again (he can't, 2 terms already), he's sure to win just from sheer power of charisma and he managed to keep his hands very clean. His political party is currently in turmoil from a number of high profile corruption charges though. The best case scenario I could see is the new governor of Jakarta clean up the city for 5 years, then in his second term run for Vice Presidency along with Prabowo, who is currently his political backer. There's no good candidate for 2014 is also caused by the old powers refusing to pass the reins to younger people. Megawati, the president before Yudoyhono, is even rumored to run AGAIN. She's already too old and already proven an ineffective leader in the past but she just couldn't let it go and pass the mantle to, say, her daughter. Instead she just kept on clinging to her position in her party. Indonesia's political system is too close to feudalism. Singapore could never gotten this rich if they weren't situated right next to Indonesia and Malaysia. They got their labor from Malaysia and thus stalling the need to immigrate a workforce and they became Indonesia's tax haven. Indonesia is INSANELY rich in natural resources. Oil, gas, ridiculous pile of coal, fertile plantations, lots of metals and even rumored uranium deposits in Papua (currently mined by the notorious Newmont mining company, who claimed they're only mining gold). Papua island used to be part of Australian contingent. The people and fauna shared similarities with Australia's. We even got tiny forest kangaroos there. The Papuans are related closer to Australian Aborigenes than compared to, say, Javanese (Java island) or the Sasak (Lombok) or the Dayak (Borneo). Indonesia is like a miniaturized South Asian tribes in one convenient park. The most advanced and stable country in SE Asia is without a doubt Singapore. It's ran like a police state but the people in charge know what they're doing. They're playing 2 giants, Malaysia and Indonesia, like a fiddle, even when Indonesian military might (back in the 80s Suharto's era) could crush any SEA country (except maybe the Philippines). Now I doubt we could even make a dent in Malaysia's better equipped army. Every single rich guy in Indonesia would have hidden accounts in Singapore. This is the smart thing to do of course, since if any turmoil happened, you just board a plane and hide there. ReindeerF posted:This is excellent - thanks for stopping in to our largely ignored thread about our largely ignored region! Uh, they might have mixed up SBYudoyhono's integration of the Independent Aceh Movement (GAM) with the actual crazy jihadists. The GAM integration happened right the tsunami that wiped a good chunk of Aceh's population. The rebellious movement had been fighting there for decades, ever since Indonesia's independence in 1945, for the right to establish their own Islamic law. Suharto was against this so the area because a battleground ever since. But after the tsunami, the situation is right for the new government under SBY to offer peace terms. GAM dismantled itself to become a genuine political party. Aceh is now officially regarded as special autonomous region, where they can exact Islamic law, even public caning of Muslim women found to wander around unaccompanied by male family member. The funny part is how ridiculous this looks when your population is not stuck in a prison nation and could just drive up to the next province and see how life is without the backward law. The region, like any other province in Indonesia, is also democratic. And every election, the least hardline gets elected. They're finding it kinda tough to have an Islamic paradise like Saudi Arabia without an actual no-election-needed monarch. The terrorist johadists that did the Bali bombing twice were not connected to the Aceh rebels. They were home grown terror groups funded by hardline fundie Islamic groups with ideologies imported from Malaysia. The top leaders (one is in jail, two killed by the police over the years) are even Malaysians. There are crazy Indonesian jihadists too of course, like that Hambali guy who were actually part of al Qaeda. He's spending fun time in Guantanamo now.
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Oct 23, 2012 15:36
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Oddly enough, I actually unintentionally trailed Hambali in 2003 when he was arrested. We were in Phnom Penh at the same time and then I was in Ayuttayah when he was arrested there. This was all around the time of the Marriott bombing on my first visit to Thailand before emigrating here. Didn't catch him for a beer or anything, though.
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Oct 23, 2012 15:50
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ReindeerF posted:Oddly enough, I actually unintentionally trailed Hambali in 2003 when he was arrested. We were in Phnom Penh at the same time and then I was in Ayuttayah when he was arrested there. This was all around the time of the Marriott bombing on my first visit to Thailand before emigrating here. Well, obviously they got a fake and we have found the real Hambali.  @wid Thanks for the info. I didn't know any of that and I'm glad I got some first hand information.
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Oct 23, 2012 19:02
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kazakirinyancat posted:Law goes into effect on the 3rd of October. I'm doing my best to get into trouble to see if they'll actually make an example of me. So it's been more than 3 weeks, did the authority manage to make an example of you? 
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Oct 23, 2012 19:16
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kazakirinyancat posted:Well, obviously they got a fake and we have found the real Hambali.
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Oct 23, 2012 19:17
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Section 31 posted:Quoting your earlier post... Not yet. I should step up my game. From calling them poopoo face to calling them poo poo heads. We haven't heard anything from Sotto since this on October 10th: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/286602/sotto-mulls-resigning-as-majority-leader quote:Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who was widely criticized for proposing online libel in the cybercrime law, is now considering resigning from his post as Senate Majority Leader. His face in the photo is the best. Aside from the leader of an anti-mining group who got arrested down south in Cagayan (despite the law being suspended by the supreme court) there hasn't been any news about the cyber crime law.
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Oct 24, 2012 03:55
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Section 31 posted:Is Malaysia really responsible and to be blamed for the armed movements in southern Philippines? That sounds like a wild and paranoid conspiracy theory... Malaysia is also regularly blamed by Thais for harboring extremists who incite unrest in southern Thailand. Though that could just be the usual Thais blaming neighboring countries for everything though. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Oct 24, 2012 |
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Oct 24, 2012 04:04
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kazakirinyancat posted:Not yet. I should step up my game. From calling them poopoo face to calling them poo poo heads. Can we get back to passing the RH bill  Sometimes I get the feeling that the plagiarism and cybercrime issues were ridiculously dumb on purpose so that they could drag it out even longer without the anti-RH senators shamelessly filibustering.And on a related note, this news regarding Sotto may not be good--he has said in the past, quite explicitly, that he'd resign from his post if he had to in order to continue filibustering the RH bill effectively.
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Oct 24, 2012 07:20
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19994432 Nice article by the BBC regarding the problem of politics being a family business in the Philippines.
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Oct 24, 2012 08:47
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That's something I recall discussing a lot with my Pinoy friends while I was working there. On the surface it's completely understandable, you see the same thing in places like Pakistan, where it's the same families over and over. What's interesting about these two countries political dynasties to me - aside from everything else that's interesting, which is a lot when you have guys like Erap driving around in jeeps with .30 cal machine gun replicas and running for office - is that the blatant corruption actually works well to empower women in politics. It's just that it mostly seems to empower only the worst possible women, heh. I guess Thailand's joined that group now, with Yingluck as Prime Minister. You go incredibly corrupt girls! I was there toward the end of Gloria's term, when everyone in Manila (the middle class, anyway) couldn't wait to see her go and I remember thinking, "Yeah, great, so the alternative is going to be yet another scion of a wealthy family." In that respect it seems to suffer from the Mexcian-Spanish legacy as much as anything, though at least they can point to a bit of a turnaround politically in the last couple of decades with guys like Vicente Fox. It helps that the US has taken its thumb off the scale there, largely, but that's true in the Phils too and nothing has changed.
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Oct 24, 2012 08:56
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Argue posted:Can we get back to passing the RH bill Last I heard, the RH bill was watered down and the proponents are ok with it. I haven't seen the changes myself, should check that out. As long as it passes in some recognizeable form. It'd give the local Church a good kick. I wish Sotto would just fall over and die. He wasn't even funny on his noon time show. quote:"It may be the 21st Century, but in reality this is still a very feudal society," says political analyst Marites Vitug. drat right it is. Practically medieval. We have our king and lords and theocracy in place. We just don't go around in the cities with swords. We have guns and bolos instead.
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Oct 24, 2012 09:36
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ReindeerF posted:The response of China, the country, seems to be indifference if Africa's any indication. They're making deals with local bigwigs for access to natural resources, land, transit routes and so on, so as long as the local government gives them what they want they don't seem to care what the local population wants or what happens to their citizens. So, pretty much like any realpolitik superpower playing in their backyard, heh. The problem they seemingly have is one that, if you start talking about it, makes you sound a lot like someone paraphrasing one of those Malaysian anti-semitic books you see at the airport in KL, heh. The nice way of saying it is that they have a stereotyped reputation for working people very hard, making money and not spreading it around in the community and not integrating well with host cultures. We don't seem to have any Africa thread, hope this comment is relevant enough for this thread: China definitely seems to be following the same pattern here in Ethiopia. They come in, build a factory and high-quality roads to it, import all Chinese labor, and ignore the local population. I heard from someone here that basically the only time they interact with the locals is when they truck in prostitutes. What can that seem like to someone who lives in one of these countries... Also, fun fact: "China" is replacing "ferenj" as the generic word for "foreigner" here 
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Oct 24, 2012 11:36
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