text:
Eclipse Community Forums
Forum Search:

Search      Help    Register    Login    Home
Home » Eclipse Projects » Subversive » Program hangs on "Update SVN Cache"
Program hangs on "Update SVN Cache" [message #888761] Mon, 18 June 2012 11:38
Kevin Schmincke is currently offline Kevin Schmincke
Messages: 2
Registered: June 2012
Junior Member
Every time I start eclipse, the program begins doing this "Update SVN cache" thing but it will sit at 0% forever. I cannot perform any operations (such as checking out my projects, building them, or even running them) until this operation is completed (which never happens). Also, whenever I try to type anything in the editor, the whole program freezes and I have to kill the process.

I have been searching google for the answer to this problem for days and have yet to come up with an answer. Has anyone else had a similar problem and found a solution?
Previous Topic:Usernames of SVN comitters not shown
Next Topic:upgrading to Juno
Goto Forum:

Current Time: Sun Jul 13 23:51:33 EDT 2014

Powered by FUDForum. Page generated in 0.02207 seconds


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Type: response

text:
Serving the Electronic Design Community Since 1956
Subscribe to ECN Magazine All
View Sample

FREE Email Newsletter

ECN Daily

Google: Critics of Vietnam mine face online attack

March 30, 2010 11:30 pm | by BEN STOCKING - Associated Press Writer - Associated Press | News | Comments

Google Inc. says malicious software has been used to spy on Vietnamese computer users opposed to a controversial bauxite mine in the Southeast Asian country. Computer security firm McAfee said the perpetrators may be linked to the communist government.The "malware" has targeted "potentially...

At Home With a Router

March 30, 2010 8:24 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

The home router sits undisturbed by those who know better than to touch it. Valet is a new wireless router designed for people who are tired of being intimidated by a blinking box.

AT & T Girds for iPhone Battle

March 30, 2010 7:24 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

AT&T is cranking up efforts to improve its network quality as Apple prepares a new version of its iPhone able to run on rivals' wireless networks.

Survival of the 3-D Movie

March 30, 2010 6:24 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

Theater owners are scrambling to divvy up the tight supply of 3-D screens as three movies— "How to Train Your Dragon," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Clash of the Titans"—collide at the box office this weekend.

Nano-discs destroy cancer cells

March 30, 2010 5:29 pm | by ArgonneNationalLab | Videos | Comments

A new technique, designed with the potential to treat brain cancers, is under study at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago Medical Center. The micron-sized magnetic materials, with vortex-like arrangements of spins, were successfully interfaced with Glioblastoma...

Access to Google Is Interrupted in China

March 30, 2010 5:28 pm | by New York Times | News | Comments

Users trying to access the site in English and Chinese reached the home page but were unable to complete searches.

Technology Coalition Urges Stronger Online Privacy Laws

March 30, 2010 5:28 pm | by New York Times | News | Comments

Microsoft, Google and other companies are pushing to protect private information from government access.

With Hirings, Yahoo Steps Up News Coverage

March 30, 2010 5:28 pm | by New York Times | News | Comments

The company is bringing in journalists, some from traditional outlets, to create more original content.

Octopus Hopes to Expand in China

March 30, 2010 4:28 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

Octopus, Hong Kong's payment card, is aiming to grow in mainland China, where it is being positioned to handle everything from all-in-one bill payments to birth registration and social security.

Novell Wins Unix Case

March 30, 2010 3:24 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

A federal jury decided in favor of Novell in an ownership battle over Unix computer-server operating systems.

MasXtreme Capsules (Natural Wellness) - product contains undeclared drug ingredient

March 30, 2010 3:20 pm | by FDA MedWatch | News | Comments

Recall of product, sold as a dietary supplement, containing undeclared aildenafil as well as the drug phentolamine.

Seven-Segment Numeric LED Display Performs in High Temps

March 30, 2010 2:32 pm | Product Releases | Comments

Lumex launched QuasarBrite High-Temperature Seven-Segment numeric LED Display technology capable of providing bright, crisp display performance in temperature ranges up to 105°C. The new ¼ Watt LED displays are

Story tips from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory April 2010

March 30, 2010 2:25 pm | by EurekAlert | News | Comments

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) A new pulsed magnet technique developed for ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source shatters previous field strength limits for pulsed neutron scattering experiments. Science, medicine and engineering will at ORNL for its annual Biomedical Science and...

Power Controller for Dimmable LED Lighting Touts High Efficiency

March 30, 2010 2:16 pm | Product Releases | Comments

Cypress Semiconductor introduced AC-DC digital power controllers for LED lighting. The CY8CLEDAC01/02 controllers are presented as delivering high efficiency while meeting EnergyStar requirements. They provide

Xerox's Mulcahy to Retire

March 30, 2010 1:28 pm | by Wall Street Journal | News | Comments

Xerox veteran Anne Mulcahy plans to retire in May, with handpicked successor Ursula M. Burns adding the company's chairmanship to her duties as chief executive.

You may login with either your assigned username or your e-mail address.
The password field is case sensitive.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-180-212-248.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-23
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for July 2014
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Pest-control officers installed high-definition cameras to track the rats, set up poisoned traps to catch them and released two bull snakes to kill those too wary to be trapped. The snakes, which look like rattlesnakes but are non-venomous constrictors, had been caught after citizens complained. They are normally released in a wilderness area when found in town, but in this case they were deployed to the dump.

Pictures of dead rats (those not disposed of by the snakes) seemed to signal early success. But as the corpses continued to pile up—there were 103 by August 27th—and rats were sighted in residential areas, the city opened a new front in the war: Operation Haystack. This involved stacking bales of hay stuffed with poison at 15 locations. Alison Redford, the provincial premier, promised the extermination effort would be “unrelenting.”

Alberta, where farming is important, has taken rat-control seriously since the 1950s. It maintains a rat-control zone 600km (375 miles) long by three km wide along the southern section of its border with Saskatchewan, where the greatest threat is thought to exist. A rat patrol pays special attention to farms and towns in that zone. The province publishes recipes for the most effective poisons: a mixture of rolled oats and icing sugar laced with Warfarin does the trick. And it has made it illegal to own a pet rat, although hospitals and universities are exempt.

According to Lianne McTavish and Jingjing Zheng, researchers at the University of Alberta, the provincial government’s poster campaign in the 1950s, modelled on wartime propaganda, was also intended to unite Albertans behind an image of a “clean province that was both distinct from its prairie neighbours and for the most part populated with vigilant, hardworking citizens eager to remove unwanted intruders”. The message sunk in. When rats were reported in a Calgary alley in 2004, the pest-control officers were nonplussed to find a posse of neighbourhood residents armed with brooms and wooden batons helping to club the rodents to death.

So few Albertans have seen a live rat that they have trouble identifying them, even though the government has helpful rat quizzes on its website. “We get hundreds of calls a year and less than 10% involve a rat,” says Phil Merrill, the provincial rat and pest specialist. So the recent increase in sightings in Calgary and Edmonton, where authorities received more calls in one day in August than they normally receive in a year, does not necessarily mean the province is being overrun. Past calls have resulted in the apprehension of juvenile muskrats, squirrels and northern pocket gophers. All are pests, but none is considered as dangerous in Alberta as the rat.


text:
AMERICANS have grown accustomed to North Korean nuclear petulance. Now they are learning to live with its cyber sabre-rattling. Earlier this month the Department of Defence delivered a report to Congress accusing the hermit kingdom's expanding army of “cyber-warriors” of using foreign infrastructure, such as broadband networks, to launch cyber-attacks on American allies, most notably South Korea.

Kim Jong Un, North Korea's fresh-faced dictator, is said to have 4,000 loyal cyber-warriors at his disposal. Brightest sparks at the sharp end of Songbun, the North’s rigid social hierarchy, are plucked from school to train as elite hackers. Following graduation they are often posted in China and Europe to wreak digital havoc, says Sun Chul Kim, a cyber-security expert at Korea University in Seoul.

According to American report, cyber-warfare is a cost-effective way for North Korea to boost its military capabilities, which may explain the keen interest Mr Kim has taken in it. Prominent web security analysts such as Rob Rachwald of FireEye, an American firm, agree that the tools used in a recent cyber-attack on South Korea could have cost just tens of thousands of dollars, compared to the estimated $1.3 billion the North spent on its rocket programme last year.

On March 20th thousands of South Korean banking and broadcasting systems were paralysed by a devastating cyber "time bomb" spread unwittingly via the ViRobot Management System, corporate antivirus software made by Hauri, an internet-security firm. When the bomb exploded, it wiped the master boot record (MBR), which stores the information a computer needs to start the operating system. If the MBR is wiped or damaged, the computer system will not start up.

The attack targeted machines running Windows and Linux operating systems, throwing ATMs offline and crippling national television stations. Derek Manky of Fortinet, another American security firm, who led a team of experts sifting through the virtual debris of the virtual bombing alongside the Korean Internet Security Agency (KISA), says it is hard to identify the perpetrators. But at a time of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula many fingers in Seoul are pointing at the North.

Similar viruses have been deployed before, most notably against Iran in 2012. Parts of the malicious software, dubbed Trojan.Jokra, were written in English, and on an English-language keyboard, according to FireEye. Mr Manky says such outsourcing is common. But it does suggest that if North Korea is behind the attack, it is plugged into the hacker world.

This worries the South. Since the start of the year it has doubled the number of experts at its "cyber-command" to 1,000. As one of the world’s most connected nations South Korea represents a tempting target for cyber attacks. Whereas its government systems are well protected, South Korean companies and individuals often are not: the attacks on March 20th exploited vulnerabilities that were previously known. Digitally deprived North Korea, meanwhile, is one of the safest places in the world in this respect.


text:
WHY are the young so disappointing, when it comes to their manners, dress codes, or knowledge of the canon of Western civilisation? Ask a British or American conservative, and he will blame the left: the 1960s vintage teachers who disdain dead white guys like Shakespeare, the college campuses where Derrida and deconstruction have displaced reading actual literature or the egalitarian ethos of "all shall have prizes".

Ask someone from the left, for example in Britain, and they will trace the rot back to Thatcherism: the hostility to pure research, the focus on commercially-driven vocational education (all those degree courses in golf course management or marketing, elbowing aside history or Ancient Greek), or the dumbing down of examinations by ministers who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Luc Ferry, a prolific French philosopher and former education minister in the conservative government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has a new book out, "Face à la crise: Matériaux pour une politique de civilisation", offering a distinctly Gallic view of the problem: the fault lies with globalisation.

Interviewed in the Belgian newspaper, Le Soir, Mr Ferry explains his theory with a portrait of an archetype, a French business tycoon who is appalled by the mumbling Philistines who turn up to his grandchildren's birthday party:

"Imagine him at home, the day perhaps when his grandchildren and their classmates come to a birthday tea in his lovely apartment. He is appalled. These young people, dreadfully turned out, are incapable of saying hello, thank you or goodbye politely. And have you had the miserable experience of talking to them about literature, music or history? It is like the Mongol hordes. They lack all culture, and as the national education system is impossible to reform we are inexorably headed for decline... Now, let us admit that his diagnosis is right. But the catch is this, and I tell him this as a friend: he bears complete and sole responsibility for this situation. And this is why. My imaginary CEO has only one wish: that our children should be ardent consumers. Now, in its purest form, consumption resembles an addiction. What is the definition of a drug addict? Someone who cannot help but seek bigger and bigger doses of a drug, and more and more frequently. In other words, the ideal customer for my CEO who has done all he can with his advertising campaigns to plunge our children into a state of chronic dependance. And so I say to him: you can't have your cake and eat it. You cannot have a well brought up child, who is cultured with good grammar and manners, who is also a consumerist/web and TV channel surfing child. The two types cannot co-exist in a single brain... Without realising it, the bourgeois businessman has become a revolutionary, tearing down traditional values because they act as a brake on consumption."

So, from the looks of it, everyone is to blame: politicians from left and right, and businessmen. Because as a parent, I must admit I worry about exams that become easier and easier to pass every year, and sigh at the lack of academic ambition in today's textbooks. I would rather my children did not study golf course management, and I think Cartoon Network, with its constant advertisments and cheap, violent cartoons, is not good for children's behaviour.

Or maybe, just maybe, rather than worrying about pinning the blame on other people, I should recognise that parents and grandparents have been sighing over the poor manners of the young since Noah. And that the world has always contained low and high culture, things that inspire and things that distract. And that it is above all a parent's responsibility to raise a balanced child. I was a terrible little swot as a child, but I still liked the A-Team. My children and their classmates seem to like both books and (bafflingly) Pokémon.

Students of irony may care to note, what is more, that only a DVD has kept this blogger's children distracted long enough to allow me to write this posting. So enough, I am off to speak to my children, and see if they remember me.


text:
MY COLLEAGUE Lexington notes that people have been arguing over the role of Western evangelicals in promoting homophobia in Africa, notably in Uganda's proposed law that prescribes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality". Lexington cites Philip Jenkins, the expert on global Christianity, as arguing that the claim that African homophobia is imported from Western evangelicals is "bunk".

uganda, homosexualityGay-bashing in Uganda was common long before any American preachers showed up and gave unpleasant speeches. Rivalry between Islam and Christianity for adherents ensures that preachers of both faiths compete to offer the most anti-gay vision, because that is what a lot of Ugandans want. As in many parts of Africa, openly gay people risk being lynched. The idea that Africans are passive puppets waiting to be told what to do by Americans is both wrong and insulting, says Mr Jenkins.

Lexington attended a talk Mr Jenkins gave in Miami on Tuesday, and spoke with him before and afterwards. It sounds as though Mr Jenkins's focus has evolved a bit over the past few years; when he wrote this article in the New Republic, he wasn't exactly saying that Western evangelicals were irrelevant to Ugandan homophobia. It was more that such influence had been over-emphasised. He situated African homophobia in the rising tide of evangelical Christianity in Africa, and noted that first- and second-generation converts to any faith tend to be more literal in their interpretations of its holy texts. He did argue that competition between Christianity and Islam helps drive homophobia, but he did so in a way that highlights how values are shaped dynamically by the discourse generated in religious competition, including missionary discourse. He also placed African antipathy to homosexuality in historical context, recalling a fascinating angle to the history of Uganda's 19th-century Catholic martyrs. (Apparently some of them were Christian pages who refused to take part in the pederasty adopted by the Arab-influenced Muslim king of Buganda.) "For many Africans," Mr Jenkins wrote, "sexual unorthodoxy has implications that are at once un-Christian, anti-national, and oppressive."

Mr Jenkins is certainly right about that. In the first meeting on HIV policy in Africa I ever sat in on, at the UNAIDS office in Togo in 2000, a local-country counterpart opined that there was no need to discuss outreach to men who have sex with men, because Africans don't do that; only the local Europeans had imported such perversions. (A behaviour-change communications specialist from Ivory Coast then rattled off a series of anecdotes about gay communities in Africa, which put the meeting back on course.) But obviously these attitudes are not immutable, uniform or original; different African societies and cultures have had a wide range of sexual attitudes and practices, and in many cases homophobia has developed as part of the homogenising discourses of modernisation, including Christianity, Islam, nationalism and pan-Africanism. Mr Jenkins thinks African attitudes towards homosexuality will evolve, but in the meantime,

gays in Africa face very real barriers to acceptance. And we do them no favors by viewing Africa's culture war over homosexuality as a mere extension of the battle we are witnessing here in the United States, rather than as a fight which raises questions unique to African history and politics.

This is different from arguing that American evangelicals have not played a role in promoting homophobia in Uganda. The report Lexington cites by Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian Anglican priest, provides a detailed history of efforts by American evangelical churches to promote anti-homosexual doctrines in Africa. Such evangelical churches have backed up their missions with direct salary support to African clergy, and have rewritten the texts of speeches by African clergy to emphasise their own priorities. To say that this has no effect would be akin to claiming that missionaries have no effect, which, given the explosive rise of African Christianity, is obviously not true. Of course American Christianity influences African Christianity; for that matter, the influence runs in the other direction too. (There's a great deal of African religious culture imbricated in the Southern evangelical tradition, which is one reason American evangelical preachers feel so comfortable working in Africa.) The rise of African and American evangelical Christianity is a global, cross-cultural, trans-national system. While it would be a mistake to ignore local factors, it's also a mistake to ignore international ones—such as the way that the drive for converts in the global South alters American religious culture by empowering those churches, often the more miracle-oriented ones, that do a better job of appealing abroad.

It's one thing to recognise that Africans are responsible for what happens in African societies. But it would be silly to claim that therefore, no one besides Africans bears any responsibility for anything that happens in African societies. That's using a faulty anti-imperialism argument to wash your hands of all responsibility. There's nothing infantilising about the observation that Africans are influenced by American evangelical missionary efforts to influence them, and people who object to American missionary campaigns promoting African discrimination against gays are quite right to feel a moral duty to oppose them.

(Photo credit: AFP)


text:
Eight of Warsaw's most influential think tank experts have just published an open letter [link in Polish] arguing that ahead of Poland's EU presidency, which starts in six weeks, the government is neglecting climate-change issues. The letter matters, because its signatories directly influence planning for the six-month presidency, during which a UN climate change conference will take place in Durban.

Entitled: "The forgotten conference", the letter urges Poland to pay more attention to the event. It bemoans the fact that Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski's annual statement to Parliament in March 2011 did not mention the meeting and that climate-change issues are absent from Poland's presidency priorities.

These omissions suggest that Poland is failing to take climate change seriously even as negotiations on the issue have moved far beyond the confines of environmental policy and now touch on global economic, social and political relations especially between the rich and less developed countries. The climate conference in Durban is where the negotiations will take place as to what is to happen once the Kyoto protocol runs its course requiring a new worldwide agreement on lowering CO2 emissions. In Durban, Poland will be co-responsible for coordinating a common UE position on climate.

That may be a tad optimistic: much of the foreign-policy planning now stems from Brussels, rather than from the rotating presidency.

Still, it continues:

the Polish government appears to view proposals put forward by those who want to radically limit CO2 emissions as a threat to our economy. But this approach itself marks a threat. Firstly, the EU's Presidency role is to act as an arbiter in disputes between member states. The presidency should not take sides. Those responsible for the Polish presidency would do well to remember this. Secondly, the EU is concerned to play a leading role in the fight against climate change in Durban. Were Poland to take the role of a country which neglects the issue or indeed treats it as a threat to its well being and consequently acts as a brake on the proceedings then our position in the EU will suffer. Our presidency's achievements in other fields will be dimmed.

The signatories are:

  • Krzysztof Bobinski – President of Union&Poland Foundation;
  • Malgorzata Bonikowska – Editor of THINKTANK Magazine;
  • Zbigniew Czachor – Director, Centre of European Research and Education;
  • Grzegorz Gromadzki – independent expert;
  • Jacek Kucharczyk - President of the Executive Board, The Institute of Public Affairs;
  • Bartek Nowak – Executive Director, Center for International Relations;
  • Jan Pieklo – Director, Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI; and
  • Pawel Swieboda – President of demosEuropa-Centre for European Strategy


text: GULLIVER has already tried to explain how the latest "cure for jet lag", reported in the Lancet, works. But those of you wanting a more scientific assessment of tasimelteon should read this article from The Economist. It also includes one possible way to neutralise the melatonin-reducing (and hence biological-clock-upsetting) effects of artificial lighting from computers and televisions: "wear orange glasses in the evening".


text:
AMERICAN politicians of right and left paid Margaret Thatcher a rare compliment today. They praised her for her record at home and abroad but also—unusually—hailed her as a spine-stiffening friend who had at vital moments nudged America to be true to its own self. At the same time American politicians and strategists broke with tradition in pondering future lessons that Britain’s first female prime minister might offer Americans seeking leadership positions in their parties or in the country. Not every foreign leader is accorded such memorials in America, a country that is as self-sufficient as it is mighty.

In Republican memory, Lady Thatcher cannot be divided from Ronald Reagan, the conservative movement’s secular saint. Her death prompted pride in the two friends’ parallel achievements, as political leaders who pulled gloomy, pessimistic countries back from a sense of inevitable decline, with a robust faith in individual endeavour and freedom that pulled both democracies firmly to the right. Her passing prompted thanks for the two allies’ joint triumphs, most notably in speaking useful truths about the cruelty and weakness of the communist system, just as the Soviet bloc was collapsing under its own contradictions—even as American obituarists recalled the tensions as each pursued national interests in Grenada or the Falklands.

But today’s Republican leaders—who are currently struggling to reconcile a stern faith in core principles with a need to broaden their party’s appeal after successive election defeats—found something else to praise in Lady Thatcher’s record: her prickly obduracy, and her disdain for the vagaries of opinion polls or headlines. Such praise is telling, from a party which never tires of hailing Reagan for his common touch and sunny charm, but which is currently struggling to muster Reaganite levels of optimism in its own dealings with the American electorate.

The Republican minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, called Lady Thatcher a great ally who “never hesitated to remind Americans of their own obligations to the cause of freedom and of the need for political courage and confidence in the face of long odds.” The speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, remembered the former prime minister as a “grocer’s daughter” who “stared down elites, union bosses, and communists to win three consecutive elections, establish conservative principles in Western Europe, and bring down the Iron Curtain.”

But Mr Boehner, who has struggled to impose his will on his own fractious Republican troops, saw something else to praise, saying in a lengthy statement: “There was no secret to her values—hard work and personal responsibility—and no nonsense in her leadership. She once said, ‘Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word.’”

One of the Republican Party’s small band of senior women, South Carolina’s governor, Nikki Haley, offered a similarly spiky tribute, saying: “The ultimate Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, independent, strong, loved, and loathed died this morning at the age of 87. We have lost an amazing leader.” Meanwhile Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida who is widely seen as a future Republican presidential contender, declared that Lady Thatcher’s legacy would “always live on through the leadership lessons that defined her career”.

Democrats similarly dug into Lady Thatcher’s record as a guide for their own party. If an unpopular, often strident figure like Thatcher could win while making the case for free markets and individual liberty, it had to be assumed that Reagan’s success went beyond his avuncular charm and eloquence. “Everybody knew that Reagan was such a great showman and there was no question that he was very talented," Al From, founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, told Politico. "But what he exposed and what Thatcher exposed in the UK was that [the Democrats] were selling products nobody really wanted to buy. They made us come up with our new ideas.”

Pundits assessing Hillary Clinton's future drew rather harsh comparisons between the ex-prime minister and the former secretary of state. In vain did Bill Clinton, in a statement, hail Lady Thatcher as a breaker of glass ceilings. Instead, commentators noted Lady Thatcher’s contempt for trimming, as when she said: "If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing." This was compared—not favourably—to Mrs Clinton’s more flexible approach to ideology and principle.

Barack Obama's tribute was only partly convincing. Echoing Mr Clinton, the president hailed Lady Thatcher as “an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered”—a statement that is both factually accurate and unlikely to be one that the former prime minister would have endorsed with warmth. His words seemed intended for a different audience: the young or unmarried women who form such a key part of his coalition, and who care little that Lady Thatcher herself was so impatient of feminism or calls to sisterly solidarity.

Wrapped up this week in fresh battles with Republicans over the budget, Mr Obama could fairly have noted that as prime minister, Lady Thatcher was never a supply-side zealot who put tax-cutting above balancing the budget. Indeed she disagreed with Reagan's willingness to tolerate large deficits, and herself raised VAT (a form of sales tax) even as she cut income-tax rates.

Instead, in the part of his statement that was at least recognisably about Lady Thatcher, Mr Obama offered praise for an assertive and determinative worldview that he does not really share, saying: "Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we are not simply carried along by the currents of history—we can shape them with moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will."

(Photo credit: AFP)


text:
A PAIR of teen lovers flees a father’s death threat. A jealous husband drugs his wife to force her to have sex with an animal. Expect the hashtags to erupt across the internet: such wanton stories are the stuff of instantaneous reaction on all online platforms. With this slight difference: our lovers here are called Hermia and Lysander, the feuding couple Oberon and his fairy Queen Titania, who is made to love an ass. Make way this weekend for a bold retelling of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon is a dab hand at reinterpreting the canon of the bard. Since 1888, it has mounted 39 productions of this “lamentable comedy”, using everything from puppets to a pure white stage. Now, for its 40th outing, the company has enlisted the help of a digital team from Google Creative Labs to imagine a new kind of theatre experience for a different and broader audience. The result is "Midsummer Night’s Dreaming", a radical departure from the stage that puts the actors and play at the centre of a live experiment.

For this production the play appears in real time, in Stratford and online. Over the three days and two nights of the midsummer weekend (June 21st to 23rd), the cast will episodically enact the story of two pairs of lovers fleeing persecution, along with the magical mix-ups wrought by Oberon and his servant Puck. From tonight until Sunday night—and with the key forest scenes timed to end at daybreak Sunday morning—the play will run without scenery or props before a small audience. The public is invited to celebrate the multiple weddings that conclude the play on the banks of the River Avon.

Yet hardly anyone will see this strange production whole. Instead, the audience and a supplementary creative cast will tweet, post and film madly from the scene, launching the first breathless news reports online. Viewers will see video clips of the players, media buzz surrounding the fictional elopement, and the spiraling commentary from a cast of extras at dream40.org. Producers hope many will contribute their own observations on Google+, a social-media platform. Across the internet, anything with the hashtag #dream40 posted to services such as Twitter or Vine will be relayed on the Google+ digital stage (pictured bottom).

Purists may howl, but the atmosphere in Stratford in the run-up was both playful and electric. Veteran actors were initially surprised to learn their work would not be, strictly, shown. Nor was there much rehearsing: five days, instead of the more usual six weeks. But the stripped-down approach yields something remarkable, they say. “In a way it’s purer,” said Gregory Doran, the RSC’s artistic director, who is directing the experiment. “That’s the astonishing part—to see how, with just the words, it scintillates, it sparkles.”

The players, speaking on live webchats in the “fairy bower” during rehearsal, remark on the strange freedom of leaping in and opening the process to outsiders. “It’s very magical,” says Lucy Briggs-Owen, who plays Helena. “It is bonkers, and it is terrifying,” reports Alex Gilbreath, playing both Titania and Hippolyta.

The idea of refracting a drama into multiple, overlapping views was pioneered by Frank Castorf, a director at the Volksbühne theatre in Berlin. It has been taken up by Katie Mitchell, a British director, most recently in her London production of August Strindberg’s "Miss Julie". In these “postdramatic” stage productions, the action is not directly shown but glimpsed through cameras or screens. Now Tom Uglow of Google and Geraldine Collinge of the RSC have exported this notion to the internet.

“I liked this idea of the glimpsed narrative,” says Mr Uglow, who describes the project at length on the site. “We live in a very superficial time, with these kinds of instantaneous responses, and what we hope to do is to use that to lure people into the depths.”

In keeping with the internet setting, this "Midsummer" includes plenty of funny videos of cats declaiming lines and of weddings gone awry. There is even what one could call Shakespearean fan fiction: 35 side characters have been invented to opine on the deeper questions of the text. Mrs Egeus, for example (Hermia’s mother, whose husband would rather see his daughter dead than disobedient), takes on the burning topics of forced marriage and honour killing.

The play's darkness and surreal layers make it a natural choice for an experiment in what Mr Uglow calls the “anarchic, multi-dimensional, multi-authored storytelling” of the web. In the play and online, as in real life, no one knows exactly how the whole thing will unfold.


text:
Economic reforms

Walking the talk

Can China’s leaders revive the economy and reform it at the same time?

See article

Readers' comments

Reader comments are listed below. Comments are currently closed and new comments are no longer being accepted.

as a chinese i can say: no sign of poliitc reform at all.the core interest of this nation is:bureaucrat interest

I just want to see if a Chinese can make comment here ? And i think PRC is just like SONG dynasty ,an ancient Chinese dynasty .The country is so rich ,but its people are so poor

Pedro Macedo

"Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlesness. Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent´s fate" Suz Tzu in "Art of War"

Looking oustide in. I know little, if anything, about China. It is easy for an european or an american to criticize China. To, think, like Sartre, that "hell is other people" ("L´enfer cest les autres").
It is all qualia or how thing look to us. (Qualia is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us" Daniel Dennett

It might be overgeneralization to judge the qualities of the products, but I do agree that a large part of the world's population, especially the low-income class, seems to depend on Chinese products.
However, trade is not always mutually beneficial, especially in the case of China. In almost all bilateral trade relationships, China has trade surplus, but the counterpart hardly can. It might be true that the majority of foreign consumers can benefit from the goods and services made in China; however, the foreign investors are dispirited due to China's unfriendly policy towards foreign investments. (Despite the current position as the second biggest economy in the world, China still claims its developing status to maintain its tariff barriers and some similar methods to protect its domestic production.)

HongKongGuy in reply to BoNQrZ5pcM

In case you don't know, China is a member of WTO and has to follow WTO trade regulations. If China has trade surplus, it is because its products are competitive.

Virtually all the major global brands have opened shops and offices in China. In case you don't know, China is a major market for global brands in automobiles, luxury goods, electronic products, etc.

You can also find McDonald's, KFC, Walmart in China. And Apple and Samsung are all the rage in China, too.

A lot of foreign companies/investors entered China but finally failed because they did not adapt themselves to the Chinese market.

Those that do adapt themselves to the Chinese market (i.e., the needs and tastes of the Chinese consumers) are doing great business.

Since you appear to know so little, you could educate yourself by looking at the annual reports of Coca Cola, KFC, Apple, BMW . . . the list goes on and on -- and see whether they are "dispirited" about the Chinese market.

So before you post any comments, make sure you know what you're talking about. Otherwise, you're wasting everyone's time -- and you're just displaying your ignorance about the subject you're commenting on.

BoNQrZ5pcM in reply to HongKongGuy

First, I didn't say that China doesn't follow WTO's regulations (though one question on some dumping cases can also be raised here) and that Chinese products are not competitive. I know you're well-informed about the tariff barriers that China maintains based on the argument that it is a developing country. The question is whether a second biggest economy in the world should be considered as a developing one so that it can be granted some privileges.
Second, probably you can see those brands in big cities, but it doesn't mean Chinese regulation framework welcomes investors, which is shown in numbers. Here is the statistic provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, which is probably more persuasive than my words.
I hope you don't say they made this statistic due to their ignorance.

BoNQrZ5pcM in reply to Crystal1991

Personally, all of my Chinese friends are truly amazing, and open-minded.

However, it remains undeniable that foreign investors can hardly start a business in China due to the domestic regulations (please read the current discussion on the housing price if you really care this issue)and besides the regulation, it is also attributed to the administrative practices that investors have to wait hopelessly for the result of their investment project applications.

Ministry of Commerce, P.R.China:

Can Chinese Politbureau admit ominipresent Chinese hacking and curtail it?

I doubt it very much.

Jean Michel

"Liberalising the exchange rate and the interest rate are necessary reforms."
This is the last thing that the Chinese government must do.
By liberalising the exchange rate and the interest rate will not help the Chinese population; it will help the speculators who will have a huge hunting ground to play and to make profits. The exchange rate will then be determined not by the fundamentals of the Chinese economy but by the players in the foreign exchange market, and they will set the exchange rate for their own advantage and at the detriment of the Chinese economy. The Chinese economy will then become the helpless prisoner of the speculators.
On the contrary, the Chinese government must tighten its control on the exchange rate and the interest rate. It must have complete and sole control on these two factors. In this way, it will able able to use them to serve the Chinese economy .
Control on the exchange rate and the interest rate by the Chinese government has served the country well for more than 30 years. There is no reason to change it.

criticalobserver in reply to Jean Michel

" the Chinese government must tighten its control on the exchange rate and the interest rate. It must have complete and sole control on these two factors. In this way, it will able able to use them to serve the Chinese economy ."

I agree fully, particularly in the light that the US is printing massive amounts of dollars known as "Quantitative easing" and Japan is depreciating the Yen by 20% over the last few weeks. Yet the Western media is silent about this blatant "currency manipulation"

Bismarck888 in reply to Jean Michel

My pseudo French friend. By controlling interest rates and keeping exchange rate low, fuels inflation, both price and asset inflation. Real estate prices in places like Chengdu are double those in KL, Malaysia, even though the per capita income in KL is more than double that of Chengdu. China is already at the mercy of speculators in their real estate markets, because of the loose monetary policy of the PRC.

Most of the major economies in the world are printing money, it includes your beloved China. The effect manifest differently.

It's not that easy to be dreaming (Chinese or otherwise) while walking on a tight rope in heavy smog. That's why Deng prefers wading in shallow water on slippery stones.

Devils Advocate_1 in reply to T800

[T800in reply to tocharianMay 22nd, 10:20

I kinda like your well-informed sarcasm]

Yeah! Like the following:

{Devils Advocate_1in reply to tocharianMay 6th 2013 7:08 GMT
[tocharianin reply to YoungWeberMay 5th, 21:35
For China, the idea that they should have equals, let alone superiors, in the rest of Asia is insulting; their desired paradigm is simple; admire us, copy us, but you can never be one of us. The “Chinese Dream” is so threatening to Southeast Asians, especially Burmese, because it would mean China would be free to use the paradigm of "Tributary States" and due to China’s size serve as a bully to barbaric people in the neighbourhood.

The” Chinese Dream”, like all national dreams, is about opportunity; more specifically having all the opportunity Harvard has to offer available to Mingze Xi and Guagua Bo and not available in your home country. You may, and I emphasis the word may, have more opportunity in in the West than in your home country, but you will never have the same opportunity as the naked functionaries and the princelings.

It appears the Chinese shall soon be free of all of that Communist Party domination; who knows they might draw in and reverse-engineer foreign ideas such as Marxism and stealth drones themselves. A “Chinese Dream” is simply opportunity for the Chinese at Harvard and Stanford and yet that is a dangerous and hateful thought to the Burmese.

For Toc, the idea that China could attain a higher level of achievement than Burma is insulting and offensive; his desired paradigm is simple; if the Chinese dare to think about achieving anything better than the Burmese do, then all the Burmese must HATE the Chinese to their guts. Toc's “Burmese Dream "to feel infinitely inferior to his 'superior European race master' and feel infinitely superior to the Chinese, and if the Chinese dare not accept their inferior status assigned by Toc, he will conduct "an epic historic struggle" on The Economist forums to FORBID the Chinese to progress any further than the Burmese do.

The "Burmese Dream”, Un-like all other national dreams, is NOT about improving oneself through working hard and grabbing opportunities; more specifically, it is about hating the Chinese if they dare not feel inferior to the whites-- Like Toc does, or if they dare not sit contently at a level below that of the Burmese. Toc may, and I emphasis the word may, say that he believes in equality, equal opportunity for rewarding hard work and ingenuity, he, in fact, believes the world ought to be a well structured place with the whites on the very top of the human race, the honourary whites, like the Nipponese, Burmese following below, then the Chinese and other yellow people, and with the dark-skin Rohingyas, Africans, at the very bottom-- For him, that structure must hold regardless of how much or how little each of all these different peoples put into improving their own life.

It appears Toc will NEVER be free of this CASTE mentality; who knows if Toc had licked the dicks of his "superior European race masters" every night. A “Burmese Dream” will allow Toc to feel superior towards the Chinese, while at the same time feel inferior towards the whites-- That is why he is extremely contented at a Brit inserting his Y-chromosome into the top Burmese woman, while, at the same time, feels offended at the Chinese inserting their Y-chromosomes into lesser Burmese women.

"Can China’s leaders revive the economy and reform it at the same time?"

No, they cannot.
They are despotic.
They are rotten corrupt.
And they are too selfish.

kommonsenses in reply to Sandaman

No, they cannot-----because japan is not an independent nation, but a vassal of the us for 68 years straight since Japan's unconditional surrender to allies.
They are despotic----you bet with abe around. and they are debt loaded like you don't want to know.
They are rotten corrupt------talking about japans ronin like militarism. they are rotten corrupt in mind and spirit, and in money too.
And they are too selfish----- that's because japns have got everything they have got from the kindness of give-away by Japan's occupier the us. yet japns are not grateful---that's why japns are selfish.

And what will Chinese comrades do when both USA and EU impose 30% tariffs on Chinese junk massively dumped on their shores?

For it seems both US and EU have had enough.

T800 in reply to powermeerkat

try it... and imaging the avg price in Walmart, and in ebay, and the inflation... and the US debt/bond cycle? I assume China won't have the trade surplus to buy more US bonds?
oh.. b.t.w how much would the next iphone 6 cost if it's not produced in China / how long will it take for US plant+Vietnam+Taiwan+.... to produce the quantity needed around the globe?
you may not like globalization/China's export, but most people's living standard depend on it

HongKongGuy in reply to powermeerkat

"And what will Chinese comrades do when both USA and EU impose 30% tariffs on Chinese junk massively dumped on their shores?"

It is mind blogging to see how simple-minded some people can be. They really believe that the world is ruled and controlled by the West.

Their one-track mind makes it difficult for them to comprehend a simple scenario: If US and EU impose 30% tariffs on Chinese products, China can do the same to US and EU products that are imported to China.

"For it seems both US and EU have had enough."

So what? The feeling is mutual. China has had enough of US and EU, too.

Let me tell you what. If you don't like Chinese products, just don't buy them. Who cares? You are a nobody, and you are totally insignificant. Your purchase decision will have zero impact on China's balance of trade.

In case you don't know, billions of consumers around the world do see good value in Chinese goods -- and they are flocking to Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy, and all the big chains to buy products Made-in-China!

powermeerkat in reply to HongKongGuy

"The feeling is mutual. China has had enough of US and EU, too."
Not really, without PRC's 2 biggest export markets, you comrades are nothing.
"If you don't like Chinese products, just don't buy them. Who cares?"
You, comrades, do. And that's why you react so histerically.
Particularly 50 cents per post plants from PLA.

HongKongGuy in reply to powermeerkat

It is amazing that in this day and age, there are still people around who are so ignorant that they do not even realize a simple, simple fact: Trade is mutually beneficial. Billions of consumers around the world buy Chinese products because those products offer good value to the consumers.

It is Economics 101 -- and some ignorant people still don't get it. The Economist has its work cut out to educate these ignorant people and teach them the basics of international trade and economic theory.

guest-laelsna in reply to powermeerkat

The delusional resorts to 50 cents or PLA comrade when fails to provide counter arguments.

Posters would be interested to know how much do you get for your frequent, repetitive, irrelevant and worthless posts? LOL.

It is Western capitalism that has failed most obscenely, landed the Western world in the hands of ruthless and uncontrolled banking gangsters. When is the WEST going to "walk the talk" and reform? Has it an ATOM of guts?
The Economist's irritating and unwanted advice reminds me of the words of Octavius in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar": "Defiance, scoundrels, hurl we in your teeth. If you wish to fight, come to the field today. Otherwise, when you have stomachs."
If you wish to lecture on economic reform, REFORM YOUR OWN BLOODY SHIT OF AN ECONOMY!

T800 in reply to DAULATRAM

Don't worry, it's just a newspaper people read at leisure. No serious investor / board member / political leader would base any decision based on this....

Many have doubted China's growth trend for years and years, this is just another one.

Leaving all economic theory / interpretation / manipulation behind, I saw that people in China works hard, therefore I believe they have a brighter future ahead

HongKongGuy in reply to T800

"I saw that people in China works hard, therefore I believe they have a brighter future ahead"

Too bad people have forgotten the importance of hard work. They should take a look at Max Weber's masterpiece, "The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism."

To walk the talk is what we are expecting from any leader when he takes office, but he who is a fool believes that China will keep growing at the rate of 10%, 9% or even 8% annually. I don’t think Xi and Li will be capable of preventing the rate from spiral downwards no matter how hard they try. The 7% may be the bottom line for China that has 1.3 billion to feed, clothes, house and work.

The US is by far the most developed country with mature market mechanism fueled by democratic government but unfortunately the future of rebound is not promised, much less countries in Europe that harbor more or less the American styled model of government.

The world is getting more and more closely connected today, and no single country can fare well without trading support from others. Take China for instance. It’s known that there are three driving forces to sustain development, namely, foreign export, investment and domestic consumption.

Let’s see what’s happening there in a couple of years.

The volume of exports shrinks dramatically due to trade protectionism resulting from recession in the country of destination, and ban on sophisticated weapons sales to China presses China into buying treasury bond from the US, and the value of the total has diminished with implementation of Q1,Q2,,Q3… When the negative effects of government investment in 2008 to stimulate economy are lingering, the measures that have been recently taken concerning sustainability are under pointed discussion among officials and scholars as well. Let’s turn our focus onto domestic consumption. Who would not like spending when he or she had nothing to worry about when he or she would afford nursery and college for children, if he or she would help buy a house for their grown-up children, if he or she would foot the bill in hospital or a bed in caring center when ill or aging? The only growth point in years to come in China may be associated with urbanization, which may be a kick off for the next 5 year plan.

In conclusion, slowing down or stagnation in growth is nothing unusual in accordance with development in human history or natural law. Men have sorrow and joy when they part or meet again; the moon dims and shines when it waxes and wanes. There is nothing perfect since the good olden days.

Iching88 in reply to Iching88

Economically, there are three major obstacles to curb at the present.

1. Imbalanced structure between virtual and entity economy. Statistics shows that in the first quarter of this year, M 2 has increased by 15.7 %; credit by 14.9%; the net M 2 by 6.1 trillion RMB; and the ratio between M2 and GDP goes by 200%. The total social financing comes up to 1.7 trillion in April, which is an indicator that credit increases too fast.

During the same period of time, GDP grows by 7.7%, consumption by 12.6% export 8.4% value-added growth of industry by 9.9%, 2.1% drop compared to the same period of the last year. Corporate profit rises 17.2%, venue by 6.8 % and per capita disposable income by 6.7%. All the above mentioned growth is lower than those in virtual economy.

2. Imbalance within financial system. Investment growth keeps going up on one hand. And it’s more and more difficult for SMEs to get loan from bank on the other.

3. Liability ratio. Debt ratio within the economic system as a whole rises higher and higher. One finding reads that the total debt of government amounts to 60 trillion RMB, 117% compared to GDP.

I wonder what the next step is to be taken, Economists？.

powermeerkat in reply to Iching88

"The 7% may be the bottom line for China that has 1.3 billion to feed, clothes, house and work."
That figure may actually go down as both demand for Chinese junk and protectionist anti-dumping tarrifs will kick in in both U$A and EU.
And since most of 1.4 bilion Chinese (that's a correct figure) demand higher wages and social unrests are growing (esp. in impoverished rural areas) Chinese Politbureau will have to do something about it thus elminating the only real advantage China has among other countries:
dirt cheap labor.
"And what then, my love?"

Iching88 in reply to powermeerkat

That is supposed to be your imagination, and most countries China have trading business with are member countries within WTO, and they should abide by related laws and regulations agreed upon by themselves. The days are gone when the US or western powers dominated the whole world. Please take your trouble referring to the figures in transaction among China and the other emerging economies which will cushion the negative effects on export.

Do you have any junk made in China at your home, which will delay your kick on anti-dumpling act, ‘my darling’?

Sandaman in reply to Iching88

"The 7% may be the bottom line for China that has 1.3 billion to feed, clothes, house and work."

No, you do not need that much % if you get rid of those corrupt officilas and return the money to the people of China.

Letg's start with US$2.7 billion which Wen Jiabao's family has built in just 10 years.

most westerner cannot correctly understand the political structure of china and it's relation with it's economy.that's why they find chinese economy a mistery

condiment in reply to new student 2009

If a nation' leader can alway 'walking the talk" despite the views of the public,that means highly concentrated power,or dictatorship.otherwise,the chinese leader has been suspended by a huge bureaucratic group(who care only about their vested interest)in a actually they are not as powful as you see.especially for those who hold a liberal view.this is quite like the later period of some dynasties in chinese history.

"Can China’s leaders revive the economy and reform it at the same time?"
The word 'revive' seems wrong since the Chinese economy is expected to grow 7.5% as opposed to 7.9% last year. If this is achieved, then it is an excellent performance considering that the EU is expecting negative growth and the US economy is still expected to be static at the 1-2% level this year.
According to Justin Lin, former World Bank Chief Economist, China has the potential of growing 8% p.a for the next twenty years provided certain reforms are made and this is what the Chinese leaders are now attempting to do.

There is a popular view among us ordinary Chinese, that almost all the policies and reforms beneficial to the economy and political system, if there is any, attribute to the ex-premier Zhu Rongji, and that Grandpa Wen is just a good actor who hardly did anything meanful. Although Mr Hu achieved a lot in his first term, his reform was impeded by his predecessor, a man who represents the monopolistic red-capitalism. Thus Mr Hu had to fight with the old patron's clan for power and wiped off some of them with great effort to consolidate his position. In a word, Hu wasted his second term on political struggle.
Thus, there is no hope for Xi-Li to change the situation basically during their first term, considering that the political legacy which their precusors bequeath is just a pile of mess (Liu Zhijun and Bo Xilai are not convicted yet, and many of Jiang's clients are still in power, and it is a dilemma deal with the problem of Wen himself). But after five years, when the elder ex-emperor probably die and there is only one ex-emperor, the reforming strength will finally be overwhelming.

I find it continually frustrating that this paper continues to push for an american-style capitalism as the goal to which all non-G7 countries must aspire and that it is wrapped in the unassailable notion that it is the true embodiment of freedom and progress - a self-evident 'ultimate good'. Nonsense.
The constant conflict and inconsistent business cycles that constantly plague these societies that are presented as the 'normal' and healthy has brought never-ending turmoil to these countries' populations. We now possess the technology to model econometrics at such a fine scale that letting markets follow their own path is such an appalling anachronism. Capitalism's primary benefit of motivating an otherwise complacent workforce through profit-motive and poverty-fear has served its purpose and should be modified, especially from those cultures emerging into their own economic success. Don't get me wrong, capitalism has provided a remarkable proving ground for advancing technology and pushing people to innovate through often unhealthy and socially disruptive desires for wealth and power. But society has become so complex that these quests for wealth and power require far more than a good work ethic, high skill set, and sophisticated networking ability (all we should really ask from anyone) to a need for political maneuvering, supply/scarcity manipulation (both economic, legal, and social), and techno-warfare (using technology to thwart others rather than build yourself). I am not advocating communism exactly, but a planned system. Of course, personal ownership, movement, basic rights, and petition-against-policy are legitimate basic mechanisms for productivity - and these should be included. And I will readily admit that many of these are lacking in China - but so are they generally lacking in many corporate and non-governmental institutions throughout the free world and will likely continue to do so. My point is to have a far off future vision that we can work toward rather than a set of short-term economic parameters such as inflation, employment, etc., that fluctuate and get successfully or unsuccessfully nudged or shoved back into such accepted economic 'acceptable' range. The result is a train that follows a long a track of mediocrity often derailing marginally or massively to some unknown, unfathomable destination, this likely leads to increasing dis-satisfaction - the leading cause of non-productivity and unsatisfying temporary employment. A type of controlled chaos, always close to bursting, but getting more unstable with time, though cleverly covered by the boom-cycle as people work unsatisfying jobs for higher salaries, not complaining as much. An increasingly educated and connected society will not tolerate this as easily. The vision: post-scarcity. The path: planned technocracy. The motivation: guaranteed work (not guaranteed jobs) with a complex and sophisticated series of challenges and job/live movement freedom. The safety net: a responsive government who provides policy modification regularly not every 4-5 years - California referendum-like, but better. The means: Very free and protected information flow and planning - similar to the way a major international airport is constructed, planning for 10s of thousands of workers over a decade or more - upscalable. Micro-planning with large-scale goal. Ask yourself: is freedom, the freedom to fail or the freedom to follow a productive but self-determined path? It seems to me that China is the closest to achieving that, especially in light of reading the recent article on internet control but responsiveness in this paper.

statusquocritical in reply to MrRFox

Nothing could be more on-topic. A criticism of the very supply-demand structure at the core of capitalist 'balance' that this article perpetuates. A criticism of the very need for 'reform' of where China is leading. Perfectly on-topic in that it brings the bigger picture to light.

And who is this 'disciple', Mr. good-grammar and brilliant-spelling?

Please don't police this blog. If you have a question about someone's opinion, ask it of them or provide a different view. No one cares if someone's opinion is poorly edited as long as some compelling meaning is evident. This blog is for entertainment purposes only and shouldn't be construed as informative or comprehensive.

"The means: Very free and protected information flow and planning - similar to the way a major international airport is constructed, planning for 10s of thousands of workers over a decade or more - upscalable"

Like in Berlin Int. (Willy Brandt) Airport? :-)))

[years behind schedule and billions over budget]

"Wen Jiabao, who liked to talk the reform-talk."

The family of this corrupt guy built fotune of US$2.7 billion by using his status in the CPC.

Pity is that the Chinese posters and the people cannot read the NYT, because in China it is forbidden to tell the truth or write the truth.

If you tell a truth against CPC, you either go to labour camp or mental hospital, because it is forbidden to tell the truth.

In China what is free is to make money by any means.

tk1286 in reply to Sandaman

"because in China it is forbidden to tell the truth or write the truth". true, but it is equally pathetic to be allowed to tell the truth yet constantly hide it.

"In China what is free is to make money by any means". do you know what capitalism is?

5cents777 in reply to Sandaman

If you tell a truth against CPC, you go to neither labour camp nor mental hospital. It is OK to criticize the party in private. What is not OK is to try to mobilize opposition by uniting others behind common grievances, which is impossible to do so, with the party's iron fist clenching on flows of information.

And it has to be acknowledged that 99 out of every 100 party officials are mired in the pit of corruption, one way or another.

guest-laelsna in reply to Sandaman

Why spent so much time on Mr. Wei, when there are abundant examples of rich and well connected families both in developed and developing countries in Asia and throughout the world?

Ever look at the mirror of your own?

guest-laelsna in reply to powermeerkat

Wow! 50 yuan instead of 50 cent this time by the delusional.

How many times have you asked the same silly question? Why are you posting here if you don't know how to search for info from your beloved western media?

For once, a surprisingly balanced view of the challenges that the leaders of a 1.4 billion people populace are facing and their intent to steer China into the modern era!

It reads refreshingly of the Economist I have known for forty plus years!

There is a good professional left somewhere! Bravo!

HongKongGuy in reply to AussieLouis

"There is a good professional left somewhere! Bravo!"

Too bad the good professional is a minority among the editors/writers of The Economist.

I just hope that The Economist can finally come to its sense and realize that readers come to The Economist to read balanced and impartial reports and analyses -- not political propaganda that this magazine is prone to put out in recent years.

Sandaman in reply to HongKongGuy

You better read People's Daily which has many more very good professinal editors/writers and stop reading TE which has few such editors/writers so that the world becomes more peaceful.

HongKongGuy in reply to Sandaman

"Chinky always barks to intimidate others just like CPC."

Sigh! Another racist mad dog yapping in the TE blog.

" . . . this idot lunatic do not [stop reading TE]"

TE would be embarassed to have a racist like you to be its reader.

It might be too much for your racist brain to comprehend, but you know what -- TE is not a magazine that promotes racism.

You came to the wrong place -- and you're reading the wrong magazine -- if you want to spill your racist rant.

HongKongGuy in reply to HongKongGuy

When a magazine draws in racist mad dogs to its blog, an alarm should ring in the head office of that magazine.

The head office should ask itself these questions:

Why are the racist mad dogs flocking to this magazine but not others?

Is there something wrong with the magazine?

Do the articles contain contents that somehow attract and excite the racist mad dogs so that they flock to the blog like flies to putrid meat?

It is mind blogging that while we have entered the 21th century, there are still racist mad dogs roaming through the streets of the supposedly civilized world.

Who is responsible? Educational institutions? Or some dysfunctional families that fail to educate their kids but instead bring up racist mad dogs?

HongKongGuy in reply to HongKongGuy

Racist mad dogs are a pack of sick and sad people. Despite their ferocious speech and looks, they are just a bunch of losers – and they know it. Deep down, they are tormented by a deep sense of inferiority complex, for they cannot find any meaningful and positive ways to improve their lives and prove their values. They can only justify their existence by practicing racism, believing falsely that it will somehow elevate them and give them a reason for existence.

While healthy people are taking positive and proactive steps to improve life, the racist mad dogs are spending their time destroying life. They are a disgrace not only to themselves, but also to their families, their schools, and the civilized community.

The world must forever be vigilant of racist mad dogs. Otherwise, we might witness the rise of Nazism again – and the world may be plunged into another catastrophe.

China's demand side can't be improved as easily as western countries. To some extend, it's caused by our tradition. It's said that 'saving is a virtue'. On the other hand, compared to the salary, the price especially household,oil is so high. It is said that high tax results in high price. Due to these reasons, Chinese people are hard to consume. We become the weird ones that work hard but not willing to spend.

Be Careful! The East Dragon is extending its claws towards NATO.
Recently, a thought has been astonishingly quite popular among the Chinese that dividing the military members of NATO follows the conquest of the West.And so are Chinese top leader.And Chinese Premiere LiKeqiang and several leaders paid a visit to India altogether to show their false friendshp and hospitality with a purpose of ending the tensions between the two nations.
If everything goes right, they will continue to give other western nations a "friendly" visit to show China's rise will bring about global prosperity( but it's simply a political slogan and worth of no trust,and even many local Chinese think so).Actually ,the real plot behind these false peace and friendly posture are all the cover of the millitary competition in response to the US and its allied members.
Probably, the West is soon to be faced with trouble.

HongKongGuy in reply to AussieLouis

"I sometimes wonder how much garbage can be spilled in an ignorant post . . . "

Garbage in, garbage out.

Those who spill garbage just spend their time to show to the world what is inside their heads: Garbage.

Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
The World Cup: Vorsprung durch Technik
Game theory 1 hrs 56 mins ago
The Economist explains: The meaning of Manhattanhenge
The Economist explains July 13th, 23:50
Alibaba's IPO: Shocked, shocked!
Schumpeter July 13th, 18:10
World Cup predictions: Scoring ourselves
Graphic detail July 12th, 19:03

Products and events

Brazil has kicked off the world's greatest football tournament and to celebrate, The Economist has created a free download featuring special content on this year's competition. Download it for free now.

The Economist Radio is an on-demand social listening platform that allows you to listen, share and recommend The Economist audio content

Our app identifies and explores the issues that will shape the year ahead

Visit The Economist e-store and you’ll find a range of carefully selected products for business and pleasure, Economist books and diaries, and much more


text:
Palestinian disunity

No cause for joy

The outlook for the fractious Palestinians is as gloomy as ever

See article

Readers' comments

Reader comments are listed below. Comments are currently closed and new comments are no longer being accepted.

You don't like what I say, but possibly you might give some thought to what this man said.

“My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state.” Albert Einstein...

Take care sir and have a good day.

Yes, there you are in Canada. Sitting there enjoying yourself, as things should be. People want good things in their lives. But, do you understand that your good things, just like your country, Israel is built on the foundation of other people's ongoing misery. That's the point I think. Your country only exists because of Palestinians having nothing. You've are part of their everyday misery even as you sit in Canada. Your further idea of "the world be damned" only increases the hatred of yourself and your people. Every time a Palestinian man woman and child has to pass through one of those checkpoints on the W. Bank to go to his field to do his work, you're standing there right alongside that soldier/policeman instigating the understandable hatred by the Arabs. There is no separating yourself from the daily reality. Certainly not by placing yourself on another continent. You remain right there.

I also disagree that the issue of anti seti-semitism is a deep issue. It's rather simple to me. Bad behavior brings on bad behavior. "For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction." What's so deep about that?

You say the Palestinians can't make the right decisions. Maybe your right, but I don't think so. They make the only decisions they can because of the reality of the life they live. Those leaders of the Palestinians are chosen by the Israelis because of the way the Israelis/Zionists have acted towards them. There can be no other leadership until the Zionists finally decide to sit down and talk truthfully about what they've done and what they plan to do to make up for they're horrible behavior towards the Palestinians.

If talking openly about what has occured is considered [hate mongering], then what can I do but admit to my crime, but of course, I don't agree with your assessment.

Take care Sir and have a good day.

@ driftpin:

The country I woke up in this morning is Canada. It was a beautiful morning. I had coffee on my deck with my wife and heard the birds … my dog … glorious.

The world be damned. There are and will always be hate mongers like yourself driftpin. That's because as human beings … the 'other' was ALWAYS the enemy especially in the jungles of New Guinea.

In the modern world … religions have divided us to the degree that wars began on account of them … wars of annihilation and wars of conquest

The issue of anti-Semitism is too convoluted … too deep to answer here … but I’ve made my peace with it. There will always be anti-Semitism … as long as there is religion in the World. Should the ‘Alien’ arrive on our Planet and prove no God exists … it would be my happiest day. I don’t believe in God or the religions created in his name.

The Arab/Israeli Issue will not go away.

The poor peasants calling themselves Palestinians cannot make the right decisions … and like the ones who made consistently bad decisions in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, 1960’s up until today … they can’t be ‘trusted’ to make a good decision today.

The reality is it’s NOT THEIR DECISION.

The Arab/Muslim World made the decisions on behalf of the poor peasants calling themselves Palestinians and they MUST SOLVE the Refugee Problem and sign off on the Peace Deal that will be tabled.

‘Brothers and Sisters why are we fighting?’ Mick Jagger, at Altamont 1969

We’ll see …

Yes, it does seem like [much ado about nothing] at times. But in the long run, the outcome of all this is important. I've often said to myself, we Americans have done some very bad things, but also we've done some really great things that the world loves us for. All and all, we have much more to be happy about (although I'm not sure our people are very happy, but they should be) than sad about.

In the case of your country. I think the opposite is true. You get up each morning and must scream to the world that you should be allowed to exist. How is it that after all this time, you still are asking for acceptance? Don't you ever ask yourself that? Is it that everybody is an anti-semite? Is that in everybodies blood so to speak, anti-semtism? Even newborn babies in New Guinea, Are they too anti-semites? Or does this anti-semitism come from something else? What could that something else be? Could it be what the Zionists have or haven't done over the years since the birth of the movement?
Do you expect people to love you in that your country has produced so many assassins (Count Bernedotte, Rudolph Kastner, Lavon affair, etc.)? Can you be part of the area you live in?
All these questions never are answered. Actually, they can't be. It's all very sad tzatz. All this hate is just too bad.

Interesting that you continue to evade. You didn't address my Shakespearean quote (Truth hath a quiet breast"). but that's understandable. It's extremely touchy to you. Not being able to gain the one thing all men want, "Quiet."

Here's another quote for you (below). It just highlights the Zionist dilemma. It's also interesting that an educated man such as yourself continues to delude yourself that the Zionist idea is correct and defensible. But, I guess you must, otherwise, it would be very hard living in the "Jewish State."

"The mother of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish settler who massacred about 40 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque a week ago, says she is proud of her son. "I always thought to myself, 'When would someone get up and do such a thing?' And in the end, my son did it," Miriam Goldstein told the weekly Shishi newspaper

As far as Palestinians being slow learners, maybe they are. But they just keep chipping away, no matter how seemingly futile.

Netanyuhu's peace offer. Just more nonsense. Doesn't matter though. If a "leader" of either side was actually serious about peace negotiations, he'd be murdered forthwith. That's another intersting thing not addressed by the media. What we have here isn't war. It's Vendetta, blood feud. It can't end until one side exterminates the other now. So all this back and forth "victory and defeat" business is all just a preliminary to the main event so to speak.

The situation in Iran is [much ado about nothing].

Who knows whether he was a goy or a Khazar?

"you can fool all the people some of the time,
and you can fool most of the people all the time,
but you can't fool all the people all the time."

A. Lincoln

This is sums up the position of the Palestinians succinctly. The Palestinians are ‘really slow learners’ … maybe in a hundred years they’ll get their State. It may be in Iowa but they’ll finally get it? Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Truth hath a quiet breast.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Source: King Richard II, Act 1, Scene 3

Here's that goy, Shakespear again with his never end prose. Pretty good, don't you think? I think he brings up your dilemma nicely with just a few words. What you want is quiet (Which all men want) and the only way to get it is through truth. Even if you're correct about a greater Israel, there will be no quiet. There can never be quiet for the Zionist idea because the foundation is laid upon lies, deceit and exasion (of course, there's also the small point that Herzl was probably somewhat mad). Everyday that goes by adds to the lies, not lessens them. It is interestig that no matter how stupid people become, and they are becoming much more stupid across the board here in America, somehow, the Zionist position is still threatened with the truth.

I'll paraphrase another quote here for you, [you can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool most of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.] A. Lincoln
Pretty good for an old country boy, don't you think?
That's where you are and you can't move off square one here, even if as you say, in one hundred yrs., Israel is, greater, reaching all the way to "Iraq."

Too bad.

Take care Sir and have a good day.

@ driftpin:

"The Palestinians must do what they've been put on the earth to do, which is to resist Zionist colonialism. That's what they will do. They show themselves to the world as men dedicated to their nation as men should be. You wouldn't want an easy foe now, would you?"

Your 'Palestinian Dream' is a NIGHTMARE. Yes. I know … swallow hard and splash some cold water on your face. Yes. The 'dream is over' … you won't be back but you could start fresh in a part of the WB & Gaza. Half a loaf looks good … well doesn't it? Oh I forgot driftpin. You're a Hamas maximalist … you won't be happy until the all the Jews are gone. Then you should pull a 'Rip Van Winkle' and go to sleep for 100 years. Maybe when you awake … you'll find there is no Palestine … only a greater Israel … dream or nightmare?

Good morning Sir. I thought you might be interested in the piece below.

Ever since Jews were sent into exile by Heavenly decree, Jews were forbidden to have a state of their own. According to Jewish law, Jews may live in all parts of the world, including the Holy Land, but only without Jewish sovereignty. They were commanded to wait patiently for the day of the redemption, when there will be peace among all men.

Sir, a question if I may. Of course, you must accuse me of Nazism, but do you also accuse rabbi Weiss of Nazism? If so, does that make those who actually collaborated with the Nazis, such as the "Hero," Rudolph Kastner, and the Jewish agency of the time, Nazis as well? Or, are there only selective Nazis?

You used Shakespear's quote that I used, but as usual, couldn't/wouldn't comment on it. Are you saying my quotes are not accurate? Or, are you saying I'm using them out of context? Are you saying that Zionists have never lied?

The Palestinians must do what they've been put on the earth to do, which is to resist Zionist colonialism. That's what they will do. They show themselves to the world as men dedicated to their nation as men should be. You wouldn't want an easy foe now, would you?

The conflict will/can end only one way, with the destruction of the "Jewish State." All Zionist "Victories" heretofore, have been nothing but illusion. Too bad, Herzl's dream was wonderful, but remains only a dream. It can never come to fruition.

Actually, my wife and I are pretty good gitterbugers.

Your views are warped … if it weren't for the elections going on in Iran … I'd have thought you were Ahmadinejad because your views are the same. [If there was a picture … 'separated at birth' might be justified :-) BUT thankfully there aren't any]

Whatever Rabbi Yisroel Weiss has to say is the same to me as what Ayatollah Khamanei has to say … complete nonsense. Neturei Karta were the invitees to the 'Holocaust Conference' in Tehran, along with your other friends David Duke of the KKK and other Nazi sympathizers. Nice company you keep. I've told you to broaden your reading material.

Ask a librarian and get your nose out of the anti-Semitic bookstores or hate websites you seem to derive your information from. Sheesh. Are you related to Von Brunn? His ideas are consistent with yours. Nice.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

This is your mantra … bro … your quotes, twisted ideas and sources are used to deceive ‘simple’ people without any knowledge of the situation. They DON’T WORK with those who’ve only had even a ‘rudimentary’ education on the topic.

We can all empathize with the victims of the recent Gaza War. Of course we empathize BUT that passes quickly to anger at the leadership of the Palestinians for leading their people down a path of thorns. No hope … despair. Is this a ‘proud’ people as some have stated … NOT. A stupid people repeating again and again the same mistakes. A liberal education would go along way in the Arab/Muslim World and move them away from their narrow world view.

The Arab/Israeli conflict will not be settled by the Israelis ‘giving up’ to the pressure of the Arab/Muslim World or for that matter to the US or EU or the Quartet. It will be settled by a compromise … one that was available 60 years ago and 40 years ago and even 9 years ago. The Arab/Muslim World will have to make the ‘compromise’ - are they ready?

I don’t think so. I think we’re still far from a compromise. We’ll see. Israel is ready and waiting. Something akin to a guy asking a girl for a dance at the sock hop. (Remember those driftpin?) He comes back again and again … at what point does he just move on? We’ll see.

Good morning Sir.

I thought you might like to see what this Rabbi, Yisroel Weiss had to say (directly below). Interesting, don't you think?

"The Jewish people have been co-existing and living harmoniously in peace and tranquility for centuries together with their Muslim/Arab brethren in Palestine and throughout the Muslim countries. Zionism, which was created around 100 years ago by non-religious Jews, in fact by Jews who detested the Jewish religion, was the sole cause for the rift, mistrust and animosity created between Muslims and Jews. Zionism is the root cause for the bloodshed and suffering to Muslim and Jew in the Middle East close to a century, may G-d have mercy."

Of course, I understand that you disagree with the rabbi, but I just wanted to put it on here for you and the other posters to see.

Interesting post, your last. But I have no understanding of games other than their use in training of boys. I've never been a golf player. The last games I played were when I was a boy. As usual in your post, you evade my remarks. I understand that you must, because to address them wouldn't be advantageous to you. After all, why would a Zionist want to talk about Zionist collaboration with the Nazis, direct or indirect, and other touchy subjects?

I think that is the most interesting thing about the Zionist idea. It was built on a foundation of lies, misconceptions, and illusions and must comtinue for the length of it's existance. Too bad because good people, such as yourself, tzatz have been hoodwinked into buying into this farce called "Israel." Also, interestingly, the orthodox rabbinate never was fooled in the least by all the Zionist nonsense. The orthodox is where you'll find your most obstinate enemies. Not from the Palestinians, or people such as myself. I'm just an American observer who doesn't want my country involved in this situation.

Let me leave you with this quote from Shakespear. Maybe you'll recognoze it. "Oh what a tangled web we weeve, when first we practice to deceive." Pretty good for a goy, don't you think tzatz?

Take care Sir and have a good day.

@ Froy:

"Contrary to what Mr. Pipes claims, all these developments had almost nothing to do with the growth of the Jewish National Home. The main foreign factor that brought them about was the Mandatory government."

The British Mandate was the government … the Balfour Declaration was incorporated into the DNA of the Mandate … it's the same deal. So they 'built up' the land and Arabs flocked from all parts of the Middle East to work (Arab governments lacking in any ability to aid their OWN people).

Wake up Froy. YOU LOST. The land needs division between the 2 peoples. Maximum you get something … minimally you get the status quo. What's it to be?

Make an offer? Or like Arabfat and his n'er do well cronies Abbas, Qurei, Meshel and Haniyeh are you going to remain intransigent? Either way the Israelis will continue their lives … sleeping with an eye open but resting nevertheless. Palestinians … well they'll continue to live in the open sewer of Gaza and between checkpoints on the West Bank. So what's your ofer?

No fiction Tzatz, just facts. As Yehoshua Porath wrote in the same letter:

"The coastal area had several main attractions for the Arab villagers. They found jobs in constructing, and later working in, the port of Haifa, the Iraq Petroleum Company refineries, the railway workshops, and the nascent Arab industries there. They also took part in the large-scale cultivation of the citrus groves between Haifa and Jaffa and found jobs connected with the shipment of citrus fruits from the Jaffa port. Contrary to what Mr. Pipes claims, all these developments had almost nothing to do with the growth of the Jewish National Home. The main foreign factor that brought them about was the Mandatory government. The Zionist settlers had a clearly stated policy against using Arab labor or investing in Arab industries. At the same time, the natural increase in the Palestinian Arab population I referred to is made clear in the statistical abstracts and quarterly surveys published by the Mandatory government in the years following the census of 1931."

But I guess you will keep believing the version of the Hasbara about "a land without a people for a people without a land", evil Arabs arriving from a parallel universe to squat in the Promised Land and all that bullcrap. I gave up hope that evidence would convince you of anything. But at least I hope other readers will stop believing the lies spewed by the Israeli PR machine.

@ Froy & BL Marquis:

What fiction are you writing?

Arabs came to the areas where they could make a better living … the coastal areas … where the Jewish lands and construction dominated … gave Arabs jobs and more

It's useless to prove anything to you other than your belly-aching cries of 'it's not fair'. WAKE UP. The time to belly-ache is gone.

What can the Palestinian side provide in order to solve the Arab/Israeli Conflict?

If you've got recommendations … make them … be generous … don't hold back this may be the last BEST time to make a deal. Don't squander this Obama moment.

Come (Palestinian)mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan

@ driftpin:

There is no solution to the Arab/Israeli Conflict that would 'make your day' … other than the disappearance of the State of Israel and its 6 million Jews. Nice.

You must be a Shia … shia's like to suffer … they think that its cool. Well OK … continue to suffer. It's like I say to my golf buddies … stop the bleeding … take a 3 over and move on the the next hole but no they continue to put down a new ball and make a much higher score. Ok continue to suffer.

As far as your rational … "No outside force has any authority over a sovereign group of people, such as the case of the British and the League of Nations with Palestine."

You're wrong. The UN General Assemby voted to create two states - One Jewish and one Arab. Prior to that … due to the Treaties of Versailles and San Remo … the British gained a Mandate over Palestine … in whose terms were entrenched … THE BALFOUR DECLARATION. They didn't ask the 'natives' … yet they met with many various Arab Leaders including Emir Abdullah of Jordan. So the deal was done. 90 years later … you driftpin are upset at the results. Buck up … dry those tears … AND MOVE ON.

In golf parlance … you're hoping for the miracle shot … you're in the rough … 169 yards from the hole … water in front of the green and you think you're Tiger Woods … good luck. Better to pitch out and go for it on the next shot. But you know those Palestinians … always MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO … MISS THE OPPORTUNITY.

I quote you … "Such great men wasting their lives on such a useless project.' Haj Husseini … Arafat … Abbas … Meshel …
well they're NOT great men but they did waste their lives on a USELESS PROJECT … didn't they?

Interpreting history can be as subjective as interpreting the scriptures. You can get any result you like. That is why the duck test is so useful.

Now you have most of the Palestinians living in caged in areas under extremely unfavorable conditions. Israeli settlers are continually encroaching on the West Bank under various pretexts and coercions. The Israelis make the living conditions unbearable so the Palestinians leave. Then these Jewish ‘pioneers’ take over the abandoned properties ‘fair and square’.

If it looks like a theft, if it feels like theft and if it smells like theft, it is theft. For how it was in the past do you read the accounts of the victors or do you observe the present?

Count, by 1947 Jewish settlers had legally purchased less than 2000 Km2 of Palestine. The present surface of Israel (not including the Occupied Territories) is above 20000 Km2. Guess how they got the rest.

You seem not to have been paying too much attention to the discussions going on in these forums. The hoax about how most Arabs living in Palestine in 1947 were actually Jordanians, Egyptians or Martians has been previously discussed in repeated occasions. That thesis had been maintained by Joan Peters in her infamous book "From Time Immemorial", later plagiarized by Alan Dershowitz, and was widely derided and ridiculed by historians around the world. One of the most prominent ones was the Israeli Yehoshua Porath, who, apart of describing the book as a "sheer forgery," and "rubbish" wrote about its main argument (the one you seem to defend):

"There is no need to account for the supposed quintupling of the Arab population in those areas by 1947; so dramatic an increase did not take place. It is true nevertheless that during the Mandatory period the Arab population of the coastal area of Palestine grew faster than it did in other areas. But this fact does not necessarily prove an Arab immigration into Palestine took place. More reasonably it confirms the very well-known fact that the coastal area attracted Arab villagers from the mountainous parts of Palestine who preferred the economic opportunities in the fast-growing areas of Jaffa and Haifa to the meager opportunities available in their villages."

If you care to check the population levels at different points of History in Palestine, you may find that there were already over half million Arabs living west of the Jordan by 1890, and in 1947 they were around 1.3 million. Even if you pretend that all Arabs were sterile at the time and the additional 800K were all newly arrived, it is difficult to believe that they "had been living there for less than 2 years". That is just ridiculous.

You can check the figures by yourself and see if what you say makes any sense:

The Count of Monte Cristo

Clearly its more enjoyable here to debate opposing narratives of history than discuss the future, with the notable exception of the most recent comment by tzatz.
So I figure I may as well jump in.
Commendations to tzatz in his adept capacity to argue for recognition of the correct version of history. Most of the rest of you come across as an oddly deluded cult of adherents to the Protocols of the Elder's of Zion (apologies if I offend anyone here, I heard the 2009 version received raving reviews on

With regards to Gandhi's opinion, his statement sheds light on just how far away from the Mandate he actually was. It doesn't take a genius to understand that the Mandate didn't operate by letting Jews into the country and placing them specifically in confiscated local Arab houses. More accurately, Jews who immigrated either settled on unused land, joined existing local Jewish community areas, or purchased land from local Arabs, often at up to 10 times the standard per meter price. And we're not talking rich soil here, we're talking rock hard barely fertile ground. Rich brown soil in Ohio was selling for less than a fifth of the price some Arabs charged for dead ground in the 1920's.
As for the settlement of new areas, settling Jews drained malaria ridden swamps and irrigated previously unproductive areas, in addition to increasing food supply and reducing mortality rates, which promoted waves of Arab immigration into the Mandate.
In fact, historical data shows that more than half the Arabs living in the Mandate upon Israel's independence had been living there for less than 2 years.
Stolen land as the broad narrative for Israel's actions is, in this real historical context, a pure fallacy. Moreover, land settled by Jews in the fledgling State of Israel that belonged to Arabs before the commanders of 6 invading Arab armies advised them to leave does not count as stolen guys. And whoever brings up Deir Yassin for the trillionth time may as well just logout right now, as I will pre-rebut that it is the only instance of an Israeli atrocity, which itself alarmed and disgusted Israeli society, and eventually played a role in the amalgamation of Israel's militant groups, to prevent the more extreme elements from preforming such actions.
Additionally, Palestine's independence won't be achieved by shrill cries to return 'stolen land'. Sephardic and Oriental Jews, who really did have their land stolen from them, see this, as even though land titles exist that show the Jews are owed roughly US$350 billion in compensation, they have got on making the most of their new opportunity to live in Israel. Please, let the barrage of outraged story peddler's comments begin.

Sir, I just thought you'd like to see what Herzl had to say about anti-semitism and anti-semites (below). Interesting, don't you think?

Herzl wrote that Zionism offered the world a welcome “final solution of the Jewish question.” In his “Diaries”, page 19, Herzl stated “Anti-Semites will become our surest friends, anti-Semitic countries our allies.”

As far as my having a "problem" with Israel, my only problem is that the Jewish state hurts my own country. I would like to see it where it won't cause any further problems to the world ("final solution"). That's all I care about the Jewish state.

Nobody can give land other than the owners of that land. No outside force has any authority over a sovereign group of people, such as the case of the British and the League of Nations with Palestine.

As far as your disagreement with Gandhi, that's your right. Nobody has to agree with Gandhi just because he was a great man. Obviously, he wasn't so great in some quarters, he was murdered, wasn't he?

I have to admit that Zionism was an interesting situation. It brought together a Fascist like Jabotinsky and a Communist like Ben-Gurion to work towards a single goal of stealing the land of Palestine from the Arabs and it seems to have worked, but in the end, will fall apart. It's really all too bad. Such great men wasting their lives on such a useless project.

Take care Sir and have a good day.

Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
The World Cup: Vorsprung durch Technik
Game theory 1 hrs 56 mins ago
The Economist explains: The meaning of Manhattanhenge
The Economist explains July 13th, 23:50
Alibaba's IPO: Shocked, shocked!
Schumpeter July 13th, 18:10
World Cup predictions: Scoring ourselves
Graphic detail July 12th, 19:03

Products and events

Brazil has kicked off the world's greatest football tournament and to celebrate, The Economist has created a free download featuring special content on this year's competition. Download it for free now.

The Economist Radio is an on-demand social listening platform that allows you to listen, share and recommend The Economist audio content

Our app identifies and explores the issues that will shape the year ahead

Visit The Economist e-store and you’ll find a range of carefully selected products for business and pleasure, Economist books and diaries, and much more