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Do you ever wonder how Chinese children are being educated in nationalism? The following video, which is spreading through Chinese cyberspace, will give you a clue. It shows a group of rural grade-school students performing a poetry reading. The lines are apparently written by adults, and refer to news events in 2008. No name of the school was mentioned in the original video post, translated by CDT.

Time and again we’ve heard about the lost jobs and economic impact of failing to bail out the beleaguered American auto manufacturers. But little mention has been made of the consequences of going through with the bailout, and how such an action would be viewed by other Americans. In an interview following a Dec. 10 press conference where he and four other senators aired their opposition to the proposed bailout deal struck by congressional leaders and the White House (and approved by the U.S. House of Representatives 237-170 that evening), Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., warned that the perception that some...

Now it's official -- sort of. The United States is in decline. The National Intelligence Council has warned in its latest report that the United States will decline as an economic and political world power over the next 20 years. The NIC (NASDAQ:EGOV) report is the first major U.S. government document on national strategy to appear since the Wall Street financial crisis began in September. But it does far more than simply note the crisis' existence. It warns that the ensuing economic crisis now sweeping the entire world is just the first part of a far vaster process -- a...

Devolution has been good for Spain, but it may have gone too far THE hardest problem for the authors of Spain’s democratic constitution was to strike a balance between the central government and the claims of Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia for home rule. The formula they came up with was known as café para todos, or coffee for all: Spain was divided into 17 “autonomous communities” (plus the enclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast), each with its own elected parliament and government. This estado de las autonomías seemed a neat solution. Over the past...

WASHINGTON – The government prepared Monday to move the first batch of bailout money to banks as fretful world markets plunged again. Wall Street ended with a big drop at the closing bell, sending the Dow Jones industrials to their lowest close since the financial meltdown began. The Treasury Department said it would start moving $125 billion to nine major banks this week by buying ownership stakes, the first big transfer since the $700 billion bailout package was passed early this month. Assistant Treasury Secretary David Nason said the infusion would go to the largest banks in the nation, including...

A few days ago, when Hank Paulson called the heads of the nine families to Washington and shoved cash down their throats, he announced that the banks would use this new taxpayer cash to lend. They won't, of course. They'll hoard it like a starving family who has just been given a grocery cart full of food. And after a few days of silence, even the banks are finally admitting that. So it's back to the drawing board for Paulson & Co. Next steps? Find a way to force the banks to write their assets down to nuclear winter levels,...

Community banking executives around the country responded with anger yesterday to the Bush administration's strategy of investing $250 billion in financial firms, saying they don't need the money, resent the intrusion and feel it's unfair to rescue companies from their own mistakes. But regulators said some banks will be pressed to take the taxpayer dollars anyway. Others banks judged too sick to save will be allowed to fail. The government also said yesterday that it will guarantee up to $1.4 trillion of private investment in banks. The combination of public and private investment is intended to refill coffers emptied by...

Editor's note: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University. A libertarian, he was one of 166 academic economists who signed a letter to congressional leaders opposing the government bailout plan.CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Ten days after passage of its $700 billion bailout of the financial sector, the U.S. Treasury has announced that it will implement this program, in part, by giving banks $250 billion in return for shares of their stock. In other words, the U.S. government will acquire a significant ownership stake in the banking sector. The goal of this stock purchase is to "inject...

---snip "The government's role will be limited and temporary," Bush pledged. "These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it. ---snip

A complex sequence of meetings addressing the international financial crisis took place this weekend. The weekend began with meetings among the finance ministers of the G-7 leading industrialized nations. It was followed by a meeting of finance ministers from the G-20, the group of industrial and emerging powers that together constitute 90 percent of the world’s economy. There were also meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The meetings concluded on Sunday with a summit of the eurozone, those European Union countries that use the euro as their currency. Along with these meetings, there were endless bilateral...

To the surprise of nobody, many endorsements and opinions in Quebec have been voiced during this federal election campaign, with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's campaign being one of the central targets. In our effort to give readers a taste of what is being said in the province, we did stumble on one surprise: an influential newspaper that picked none of the parties nor leaders running for office, perhaps a telling sign of a campaign that's done little to impress. Quebec's esteemed newspaper of record La Presse did just that this week, in what editor-in-chief André Pratte called a "sad realization."...

China milk scandal hits home Chinese had shrugged off previous problems as Western hysteria, but tainted milk has many wondering what else poses a risk. Even professed patriots seek out products not made in China. By Barbara Demick Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 27, 2008 BEIJING — Even after regulators assured the public that all contaminated baby formula was off the shelves, B.X. Wei wasn't going to feed his 2-month-old son anything that came out of a can. Especially not one made in China. But his wife didn't have enough breast milk for the baby. Then the 30-year-old businessman...

So Far, It Just Isn't Looking Like Asia's Century By Joshua Kurlantzick Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page B03 So much for the Asian century. The Thais are bickering with themselves, and when they're done doing that, they'll bicker with the Cambodians -- again. China may be Japan's biggest trading partner, but they hate each other anyway. Malaysia and Indonesia? Two countries divided by the same language. I've spent a lot of time in Asia over the past decade, as an expat and a traveler. From where I stand, the place is a geopolitical mess. Hogtied by nationalism and narrow self-interest,...

There are, indeed, many reasons why people of Russian ancestry ought to keep their heads high. But just perhaps, the nation which my country - Sweden -nowaday manages to outdo in hockey rinks, although not in football/soccer fields (it was the other way around some decades ago) needs to rethink its self image. Russia of today is a giant, but sadly backward nation, presently going through a phase reminiscent of what took place in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s; she firmly believes in proudly waving a national banner and claiming territory, but her understanding of the very concept of...

Identity Is Our Best Defence Natan Sharansky, Special to the National Post Published: Monday, June 23, 2008The desire for freedom is a powerful force for peace and stability in the world. But as powerful as freedom is in the hearts of men and women everywhere, it is not the only force that moves them. There is another, equally powerful force at work. This is the power contained in identity. It is a force field little understood in the West, but one that influences and even directs events, from the broadest global and international politics to the most local and immediate...

Identity Necessary for Survival by: Melinda Zosh, June 09, 2008 Americans are fighting the war on terror with technology and weapons, but one man says Americans are lacking the strongest, most effective weapon—identity. Natan Sharansky, author of Defending Identity and the New York Times best-seller The Case for Democracy, spoke about the importance of attaining a sense of identity in a democratic society at the Heritage Foundation on June 3. “Identity, a life of commitment, is essential because it satisfies a human longing to become part of something bigger than oneself,” Sharanksy wrote in his book Defending Identity. Sharansky, a...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

We encourage our readers to circulate the following in its entirety. Instead of speaking for (or about) the Obamas, we will let them and their church speak for themselves. Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page...

If we examine the German model ie National Socialist, for nationalizing a business in a country we discover the following.The government doesn't seize the assests of the company and place its own people to take over and run the operations.No, what they do is take over the company with laws and regulations, just as we now see in our energy sector. The energy companies are not allowed to produce their product in the US without the approval of congress.I posted a paper here titled National Socialism, if you go and read that paper I think you will agree.

Next week, China's majority ethnic group, the Han, will celebrate the Olympic torch's arrival on Mt. Everest. It will be a pinnacle experience, literally, for a people who see the Beijing Games as their ascendency to restored world glory. One problem, though: Everest's peak is in Tibet. ADVERTISEMENT China's bursts of Han nationalism – often resulting in violent indignation – have been marked by such contradictions. Popular calls to boycott Western imports over the recent pro-Tibet actions against the torch, for instance, have been squashed by officials – to prevent boycotts of Chinese exports. A more worrisome conundrum for China's...