Rupert Cornwell: American revolution is beyond Beckham
The News Review:
- Rupert Cornwell: American revolution is beyond Beckham
- Not a hope in hell
- Opposition to Iraq Plan Leaves Bush Isolated
- Craig’s Bond muscles in on British movie awards ; HOME
- Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong…
Rupert Cornwell: American revolution is beyond Beckham
Belfast Telegraph – Jan 13, 2007
The message has been unmistakeable. The most famous sports star on the planet had found his rightful place at last, in the biggest, richest and most powerful country on the planet. For a moment MLS, the league in which Beckham will be plying his trade, seemed to have metamorphosed to the NASL of old, the North American Soccer League that died in the mid-1980s despite (or perhaps because of) being graced by the likes of Best, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Pele – all of them superstars in the twilight of their careers, paid vast salaries that used up resources better used to develop home-grown players and build an infrastructure for the sport. Is the new league making the same mistake with the gadzillions of dollars being lavished on Beckham? The answer, happily, is no. Major League Soccer, which began life in 1996 as part of the deal that brought the 1994 World Cup to the United States, is here to stay, with or without Beckham. Unlike the NASL, an exotic top-down operation imported into a country that then hadn’t a clue about soccer, its successor has carefully and thriftily constructed itself from the bottom up, starting with 10 teams in 1996, and subsequently expanding to 12. This year the number will swell to 13 as FC Toronto makes its debut… But the atmosphere (and level of play) will be Championship, not Premiership. The crowds of 20,000 – less at some of MLS’s more modest outposts – will be tiny. Hollywood may be close by, but the 27,000-capacity Home Depot Center stadium where the LA Galaxy play is not exactly a temple of the sport to rival Old Trafford, the Bernabeu, or the San Siro where Beckham might have gone. In terms of celebrity, he may have arrived too late. On this side of the Atlantic, his fame reached its zenith in mid-2003, when he was the cover story in USA Today and interviewed by Barbara Walters, and when the surprise smash movie Bend It Like Beckham briefly turned him into America’s latest metrosexual icon. He was about to arrive in person for a pre-season tour by Manchester United. Then came the move to Madrid, and the magic moment passed.
Not a hope in hell
NEWS.com.au – Jan 13, 2007
In the US capital, Bush’s officials were briefing reporters, columnists and news anchors on the President’s plan, telling everyone this is what al-Maliki wanted. "It’s a home-grown, Iraqi strategy," was the message. About the same time John Burns, the Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times, was talking with the public broadcasting current affairs show The News Hour. Burns, who has been in Baghdad for the entire conflict and knows as much about Iraq as it’s possible for a Westerner, painted a very different picture from the Washington briefers.
Opposition to Iraq Plan Leaves Bush Isolated
Washington Post – Jan 13, 2007
Is there anybody out there who can tell me what happened to ANTHRAX scare that was US army grade Anthrax from US army labs? Bin Laden didnt do it. Is there anybody out there who can tell me what happened to ANTHRAX scare that was US army grade Anthrax from US army labs? Bin Laden didnt do it.
Craig’s Bond muscles in on British movie awards ; HOME
highbeam.com – Jan 13, 2007
There were doubts from some diehard James Bond fans when DanielCraig was named as the new 007. But if his performance as a rougher,tougher secret agent did not dispel them, his surprise nominationfor a prestigious leading actor award from the British Academy ofFilm and Television Arts (Bafta) certainly should. Craig becomes the first Bond ever to reach the shortlist forBritain’s top movie honours, alongside home-grown stars includingJudi Dench, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Richard Griffiths and PeterO’Toole. David Parfitt, the producer of films such as Shakespeare in Love,who chaired the Bafta film committee, said he believed the 38-year-old actor was being honoured for a body of.
Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong…
Asia Times Online – Jan 13, 2007
Furthermore, China’s vaunted ”export-oriented economy” that has achieved
near-mythical status because of the country’s huge surplus in its trade with
the US shows a couple of serious creaks under serious scrutiny. For one thing,
as many as 55% or more of the goods China sells on the world market are
produced by foreign firms based predominantly in the country’s coastal
provinces. Discounting the surplus with the US, China actually currently records a deficit
with the rest of the world of about US$100 billion per annum, showing an acute
dependence on the US market. Last, as Andrew Leung of London’s International
Consultants has calculated, Chinese factories operate on less than a 5% margin
of the selling price of a great many of the goods they produce under foreign
license. One word sums up all these disparate threads: “innovation”, to counter severe
inefficiency within the system. China’s innovation challenge
China needs to innovate to enable its industries to make more efficient use of
raw materials, to enable it to sell more of its indigenously developed brands
abroad and thereby create sustainable, home-grown sprawls of excellence beyond
the coast, emit far less pollution, and enhance the quality of life for its
huge population to forestall social tensions. China, the burgeoning superpower,
and China, the bungling overpopulated Third World giant, can only be fused into
China, the modernizing innovator, or the two will be pulled apart… Last, as Andrew Leung of London’s International
Consultants has calculated, Chinese factories operate on less than a 5% margin
of the selling price of a great many of the goods they produce under foreign
license. One word sums up all these disparate threads: “innovation”, to counter severe
inefficiency within the system. China’s innovation challenge
China needs to innovate to enable its industries to make more efficient use of
raw materials, to enable it to sell more of its indigenously developed brands
abroad and thereby create sustainable, home-grown sprawls of excellence beyond
the coast, emit far less pollution, and enhance the quality of life for its
huge population to forestall social tensions. China, the burgeoning superpower,
and China, the bungling overpopulated Third World giant, can only be fused into
China, the modernizing innovator, or the two will be pulled apart. The problem is: it is easier said than done. Chinese companies may try to take
on Western behemoths in Western markets or wait until the domestic consumer
becomes wealthy enough to patronize highly innovative products. The risks with
the first route are obvious, as Lenovo’s faltering steps since it purchased
IBM’s personal-computer division have shown.